May 4, 2026 — In an era when the commercial fisheries industry is growing more concerned about the graying of the fleet, Alaska Sea Grant workshops are attracting a new generation of harvesters.
“Our beginning commercial fisherman training encompasses a lot of training programs,” said Gabe Dunham, Marine Advisory Program (MAP) leader and fisheries specialist for Alaska Sea Grant in Juneau. “The skipper apprenticeship program is taught in Bristol Bay to help youths there become skippers,” he said.
A crew training workshop for late middle school and high school students in Hoonah, on the northeastern shore of Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, was offered in April in collaboration with the Hoonah Indian Association, as was one in Metlakatla, an Indian reserve within Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage. Another is scheduled for May 7, plus more crew training on June 8 in Petersburg, on the northern tip of Mitkof Island, also within the Inside Passage.
MAP instructors offer a combination of lectures and skills training ranging from knot tying and line splicing to mechanical skills. Participants learn how to make an electrical connection, tighten nuts and bolts, and identify four different chemicals commonly found on fishing vessels. A navigation activity teaches U.S. Coast Guard rules of the road for those operating on coastal waters.