High costs of entry, coupled with permitting barriers and the difficulty of maintaining modern fishing vessels, has the U.S. seafood industry’s workforce at an inflection point.
Ocean Strategies Principal Brett Veerhusen, speaking at a panel during the 2025 Seafood Expo North America – which ran from 16 to 18 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. – said the average age of a fisherman in the U.S. is increasing thanks to a high barrier to entry. Veerhusen said the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was designed to better manage U.S. seafood stocks, has helped reduce overfishing but has also led to increased consolidation – which leaves little room for new fishermen.
“We’re at this inflection point in the seafood industry of trying to struggle with maintaining a modern fleet and a modern workforce, with increased management difficulty and higher financing costs and barriers to entry,” he said.
New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance (NEFYA) Founder and Executive Director Andrea Tomlinson said she first understood how intense the difficulties are while running a community-supported fishery in the U.S. region of New England.
“We’re in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and no new young people were coming into the captain’s wheelhouse,” Tomlinson said. “One of our deckhands, a real popular guy on the seacoast, bought his captain’s vessel and was living on the vessel with the help of his grandparents. They couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage for the vessel and afford an apartment. So, he’s living on the vessel – and he couldn’t afford a permit to fish the vessel.”
Tomlinson said the permits that young fisherman need just to start fishing could cost up to USD 300,000 (EUR 264,000), which on top of the cost of a vessel, mean fishermen face a huge barrier to entry to start fishing.
The situation isn’t unique to New England.
Gulf Reef Shareholders Alliance Deputy Director Eric Fraser said the “greying of the fleet” is impacting Southern fisheries, too. The alliance is the largest organization of commercial snapper and grouper fishermen along the Gulf Coast, and he, too, has seen barriers to entry grow and participation in fishing either get older or fall away completely.
Fraser said some of those barriers comprise a lack of the supporting resources needed in order for fishing to be practical as a career choice. Things like fuel, ice, and processing facilities fishermen sell their catch to are all important – and are also increasingly scarce in certain communities as working waterfronts disappear and expensive tourist-oriented businesses move in.
“This happens everywhere along all the coasts. Key West, [Florida], is a place near and dear to my heart. Right next to it is Stock Island. I don’t know how many of you have been to Stock Island recently, but you’re more likely to get a USD 25 [EUR 22] burger than see working waterfront,”
Fraser said. “Cost of living is getting much, much more expensive, and it’s harder and harder for fishermen to live near their boat, so some of them either have to live on their boat or travel quite a ways to get to their boat.”