To encourage more young fishermen, look to farm programs as models, new study argues

Young Alaskans seeking to break into commercial fishing face a lot of the same barriers that confront young farmers in the Lower 48 states, but they have far fewer resources to help overcome those barriers, according to newly published research.

A study by Alaska experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argues that the fishing industry and the communities that depend on fishing should have support similar to that offered to young farmers.

"The sheer scale, depth, and breadth of programming for beginning farmers makes the comparison to new fisheries entrant programs stark. Yet the lack of a new generation of fishermen poses similar risks to national food security and should be treated with similar urgency," said the study, published in the Journal of Rural Studies.

The aging of Alaska's commercial fishing workforce has been a concern for several years. The phenomenon is widespread enough that there is a catchphrase for it: the "graying of the fleet."

Other coastal states also have problems with an aging fisheries workforce, but the issue is accentuated in Alaska because of the importance of the size and importance of the industry here, said Marysia Szymkowiak of NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center, one of the two authors.

"Seafood is our number one private-sector employer in Alaska, that makes the potential lack of generational turnover a very big deal for our state," Szymkowiak said by email. There is actually an ongoing bump in young people entering the fishing business in Alaska, but because of high costs, "they need help to diversify, scale up, and be able to succeed, which is why we wrote this paper. That kind of help exists for farmers and has for a long time. Let's take that example and help our young fishermen in a similar fashion," she said.

There is a long list of farming-assistance programs that could be used as models for assisting young fishermen, she said.

For example, there are 349 training programs across the nation to help young farmers enter or thrive in agriculture, but only 14 such training programs in the nation to help young fishermen, the study noted.

In Wrangell, some younger fishermen are looking to use those programs to break into the commercial fishing business. Kellan Eagle, 21, is one such example. He took advantage of the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association's training offered through the high school. It was a 10-hour course that gave participants a basic deckhand background, something Eagle said he would look for in crew applicants once he captains his own fishing vessel.

That's not the only program Eagle is taking advantage of.

"Right now, I'm going through the process of applying for a loan through the state," Eagle said. "They've got a great program that has low interest rates, specifically designed for fishermen who can't get loans at other places. I qualify through some of their statutes that say you have to have fished in Alaska for five years. I don't have to go to a normal bank and get a higher interest rate loan."

The money gap is also huge. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2021 provided $17.5 million for its Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and $7.2 billion in Farm Service Administration ownership and operations loans, NOAA provided $2 million in funds through the Young Fishermen's Development Act, a bill sponsored by the late Rep. Don Young of Alaska, and $124 million in its fisheries finance loan program.

The NOAA study offers policy recommendations for easing younger people's participation in commercial fisheries. Those include a national census for fisheries participation, such as that which exists for farmers; development of a targeted program similar to the Department of Agriculture's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program; expanded availability of insurance programs; and development of comprehensive low-interest loan programs similar to those provided by the Farm Service Agency.

Within Alaska, difficulties encountered by young fishermen have been attributed in part to changes in fishery management.

A 2017 report by Alaska Sea Grant, a statewide education and research program headquartered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, traced the increase in problems to the transitions of several Alaska fisheries from being open-access harvests, in which anyone could participate, to limited-entry harvests in which participants were required to hold quotas. That report, titled "Turning the Tide," described both an increase in the average age of quota- and permit-holding fishermen and a decrease in the percentage of those quotas or permits that were held locally.

In 1975, according to the report, fishermen 40 and younger held about half of rural local permits, the report said. By 2016, the typical Alaska fisherman was over 50 years old, and the number of locally held commercial fishing permits in rural areas had dropped by over 30%, according to the report.

Wrangell-based commercial fisherman Mike Lockabey, 34, said he believes there are about 10 to 20 younger commercial fishermen locally. He entered the business when he bought his first permit at 16 years old. He fishes all of Southeast, but he also crabs for Dungeness in Washington state and harvests shrimp in Oregon.

Lockabey said the fisheries in the Pacific Northwest are far less restrictive than Southeast. "There's so much opportunity. Everything is open," he said. "They regulate on how much the fishery can hold."

More than lack of money or difficulties with management systems inhibit fisheries participation by younger entrants, Szymkowiak said.

She has heard from many older fishermen who say they are discouraging their children from carrying on in the industry because of a transforming ecosystem.

"They don't see the same future in it that they were afforded. That's not just about permit prices and the costs of fishing more generally but the unknowns posed by climate change which has really started to take its toll across Alaska's fisheries," she said.

That hasn't been the case for Eagle, whose father, Brennon, has encouraged him to "reach for more" in pursuing a career, even if it's in fishing. The elder Eagle has encouraged his son to explore other areas outside of Wrangell for fishing.

"He just recognizes the volatility of fishing," Kellan Eagle said. "Some years are absolutely amazing, and people get paid more than they should. And some years are really tough. ... So, he's pushed me to have more in my repertoire than fishing, but he's never pushed me away from fishing."

Beyond the guidance or dissuasion from the older fishermen, other problems make commercial fishing more and more difficult every year, Lockabey said. His season was cut short due to a blown engine. Since parts are hard to find, he's had to look at buying a new engine, which will cost around $65,000 for the engine and $20,000 for the computer system.

"The cost of doing business is getting extremely high," he said. "Our fish prices are the same as they were 25 years ago. Hourly wages have gone from $50 and $60 an hour up to $105 for help that has no idea what they're doing and $150 for help that knows what they're doing. I don't know how we can keep up with that."

Sentinel editor Marc Lutz contributed to this report.