hirty years ago, all a young person needed to fish commercially was a boat, some gear, and a sense of adventure. According to the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), young fishermen today face staggering entry costs, high operating costs, and a level of risk that is equivalent to buying a starter hotel.

ALFA is committed to helping interested persons enter the industry. Through a variety of programs, it’s helping the next generation of commercial fishermen launch and sustain viable businesses.

In January 2021, ALFA and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council saw the success of their outreach to Congress with the passage of the Young Fishermen’s Development Act. As part of that federal law, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant Office awarded close to $1 million to help fund on-ship training and mentorship for young fishers in Alaska.

“We were fortunate to receive federal funding, and we’re working with state partners and rural communities to expand training,” says ALFA’s Co-Deputy Director and Communications and Program Director Natalie Sattler.

The program provides funding and support for state, tribal, local, or regionally based networks or partnerships to create training and educational opportunities in sustainable fishing and business practices. It also creates mentorship opportunities to connect retiring fishermen and vessel owners with beginners and offers financial support and guidance for new fishery entrants.

“We want to spread this program to other communities,” says Sattler. “Our program materials are available to other organizations and communities throughout Alaska and the country interested in starting their own crew programs.”

“The time for companies to invest in the skilled trades is right now, especially in Alaska,” says John Ozburn, vice president of human resources at Trident Seafoods. “As much as the fishing industry is currently dealing with a ‘graying of the fleet,’ the processing side is dealing with a ‘graying of the trades.’”

Trident Seafoods recently launched a program intended to close that skilled trades gap to help boost the perception young people have about the opportunities that are available. The company’s move is a giant step forward and a major commitment to developing the skilled trade workforce of fishing’s future.

Trident Seafoods’ Skilled Trades Trainee Program uses structured training focused on industry needs, as well as mentoring, to develop skilled trades workers for shore-based processing operations throughout Alaska. Through a partnership with Alaska Vocational Technical Center in Seward, Trident developed a two-year skilled trades training course, with an additional commitment of two years’ employment with Trident Seafoods.

Trainees are exposed to multiple skilled trades during their first year of the program, such as operations and maintenance of mechanical, electrical, and refrigeration systems. Getting firsthand experience, they spend their first year rotating between coursework and applying their learnings at a Trident Seafoods facility. Trident Seafoods provided mentors in addition to funding trainees’ education, books, tools, travel, and hourly wage.

During the second year, trainees narrow their focus to a specific skilled trade of their choosing. Time spent in the field pairs students with a mentor who specializes within the trade they’ve selected.

In their third and fourth years, the trainees are assigned full time to a Trident Seafoods facility where they continue on-the-job training.

For the company, it’s a modest investment with the potential for huge payoffs.

“It’s now or never when it comes to finding innovative solutions that will ensure these roles are filled,” Ozburn says. “The constant challenge for Trident Seafoods, as well as the rest of the industry, is finding workers with the right combination of skills and experience for the work. So, we said, ‘If we can’t find them, we’ll invest in training them ourselves.’”

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1.5 million new skilled trade jobs by the year 2029, which would be more openings than the projected applicant pool can fill.

Stanley Black & Decker, whose inaugural Makers Index study examines sentiment about skilled trade careers in the United States, reports less than half of young people it surveyed between the ages of 14 to 19 years old say they have ever considered a career in the skilled trades. And only 16 percent of them said they’re very likely to consider such a career.

Vocational training in commercial fishing or seafood processing is an alternative to college, yet college students have pathways into the industry as well. For instance, UAS offers a range of courses in marine sciences and fisheries policy and management. Courses are open even to those not enrolled in a degree program, either for credit or as audit only.

One example is the course on cold water survival, a potentially lifesaving educational opportunity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one-third of the 878 commercial fishing fatalities from 2000 to 2019 were due to falls overboard.

On a more theoretical level, fisheries policy and management classes teach why regulations are put in place. The policy course leads students through the structure, organization, and processes surrounding fisheries policy, such as management meetings and various federal and state agencies. As part of the class, students attend at least one management meeting: the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s International Pacific Halibut Commission, the Alaska Board of Fisheries, or the Federal Subsistence Board.

A UAS course on fisheries management techniques includes a lab where students set minnow traps, seine beaches, sample plankton, assess habitats, and collect data in the field. And a fisheries internship places students in a fisheries agency or natural resource-based industry with a fisheries emphasis, supervised by a senior employee.

Since 2015, ALFA has been training fishing crews as part of its Young Fishermen Initiative. The program aims to provide young people with an opportunity for safe, well-guided entry-level experience to better understand commercial fishing and the lifestyle it provides.

Modeled on the US Department of Agriculture’s successful Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, the Young Fishermen’s Development Act is administered by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant.

“Our applicant numbers went down a little this past year due to some uncertainty in the fisheries, but we still had close to eighty applicants in 2023,” says Sattler. “The trolling season was very uncertain until right before it opened in early July, so many skippers were hesitant about hiring crew, so placement was a little lower as well. I believe we helped train and place ten crew members on either salmon trolling boats or longline vessels.”

Each year, ALFA brings young people to local, state, and national sites to testify about issues relevant to the commercial fishing fleet and coastal communities. ALFA also encourages members to join the Young Fishermen’s Network, which has local chapters throughout Alaska.

A post to the ALFA website explains what the experience is like. Cathryn Klusmeier, a deckhand on F/V I Gotta, says, “When you go trolling for the entire summer it becomes so much more than just catching fish. You are working a job, certainly, but it’s a job without set hours, and the workplace is a constantly changing floating landscape which just happens to be where you are also eating, sleeping, cooking, and waiting for the king salmon to bite. Southeast Alaska is quite possibly the best place to do any of this.”

For the 2024 season, ALFA will be placing two types of deckhands. The majority of deckhands will be on troll or longline vessels, but there will be a few seine and gillnet opportunities, as well. Deckhands are compensated for their time.

ALFA has developed materials, a curriculum, and protocol for experienced skippers who are interested in hiring through the program. Applicants must be 18 years or older to apply.

Newer than ALFA’s crew training initiative, Trident Seafoods’ shore side counterpart is small but growing. In 2022, Trident welcomed a class of four to its program. For the fall of 2023, Trident upped the class to ten trainees.

While the initial fourteen trainees vary in their professional backgrounds and experience, they are united in their pursuit of bettering their lives, advancing their careers, and helping Trident fulfill its mission of responsibly sharing wild Alaska seafood with the world.

Focusing on Alaska recruitment by visiting Kodiak, Cordova, Anchorage, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Craig, and Metlakatla, Trident Seafoods also collaborated with community-based organizations in the maritime industry. The Skilled Trades Trainee Program is not limited to Alaska, though, as candidates from any location qualified to work in the United States are eligible to apply.

Ozburn says, “We’re 100 percent committed to developing the skilled trades workforce of the future, and this program is the start of that journey.”