April 21, 2026 — A team of scientists have been conducting a novel study to understand trends and patterns in commercial fishing business costs and harvester perceptions. They qualitatively analyzed survey comments from 2006 through 2022 and recently published their findings in Fisheries Management and Ecology. They found that harvesters were frustrated by perceived high operating costs and low profits.
The commercial fishing business cost survey is the only way NOAA Fisheries collects this kind of information in New England and Mid-Atlantic. This voluntary survey goes to active, federally permitted commercial fishing vessel owners from Maine to North Carolina.
“Our cost survey is the primary source of economic data collected from commercial fishing vessel owners in our region. These data are essential for assessing how fishing fleets are doing economically,” said Elizabeth Conley, lead author of the study. “It’s critical that we connect with industry so we can learn about their business practices and better understand the socioeconomic landscape of fisheries in our region.”
Although the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates using socioeconomic data—along with environmental factors—they are often less available compared with biological data.
Survey Says: High Costs, Low Profit
Survey comments showed that harvesters don’t feel like they’re making enough profit to sustain their livelihoods. That feeling was prominent throughout the history of the survey. Harvesters expressed that high operating costs and low quota and/or days-at-sea allocations contributed to lower than desired profits. Further analyses found that their perceptions of low profits were linked to growing feelings of dissatisfaction with NOAA, industry uncertainty, and mismanagement of fisheries stocks. In many cases, perceptions of making little or no profit aligned with quantitative data from the survey showing decreased profitability.