Commercial Fishing Jobs in the US: Fisheries, Boats, Pay, Licenses and Safety

Commercial fishing is not one job. A deckhand on a Texas shrimp trawler works nights heading shrimp for an hourly wage, a scallop or groundfish crewman in New England works for a share on trips that average about a week, and a processor on a Bering Sea factory trawler stands 16-hour shifts for a share of each trip. NOAA’s latest national report puts 2023 commercial landings at $5.1 billion. New Bedford, Massachusetts led every U.S. port in catch value for the 23rd year running, driven by sea scallops, and Dutch Harbor, Alaska led in volume for the 26th year.

Alaska gets one section here because it has its own guide, how to get an Alaska fishing job. For crew share arithmetic and taxes, read deckhand pay.

Where are the commercial fishing jobs in the US?

On every coast, in fisheries with very different seasons. NOAA lists crabs, lobsters, Alaska pollock, salmon and sea scallops among the top species by 2023 catch value, and each supports its own fleet and hiring calendar.

Region	Main fisheries	Where the boats are	Season	Published crew pay
New England and Mid-Atlantic	Sea scallops, groundfish (13 species including cod, haddock and flounder), lobster	Scallops centered in New Bedford, MA, Cape May, NJ and Norfolk, VA; groundfish from New Jersey to Maine	Scallops are dredged year-round, fishing year starts April 1; groundfish year starts May 1	Mostly shares; 27% of Northeast crew surveyed reported income of $120,000 or more
Gulf of America	Shrimp, menhaden, reef fish, crab and lobster	Palacios, TX; Coden, AL; Moss Point, MS; Dulac, LA; Hernando Beach, FL	Texas shrimp closed May 15 to July 15 in 2026; menhaden April to November; longline and trap boats October to May or July	$17.28 to $27.89 an hour on 2026 job orders
Oregon, Washington, California	Dungeness crab, pink shrimp, salmon troll, groundfish	Coastal ports and river-bar harbors	Oregon ocean Dungeness crab December 1 to August 14 (openings can be delayed); pink shrimp April 1 to October 31	Not published in the sources checked
Alaska	Pollock, cod, crab, salmon, halibut	Dutch Harbor, Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea	Bering Sea pollock January 20 to November 1 in two seasons; salmon in summer; Bristol Bay red king crab from October 15	Shares; factory trawler processors $4,500 to $7,000 a month

Sources: NOAA Fisheries; NMFS-NE-274; Texas Parks and Wildlife, May 8 and July 13, 2026; ODFW 2026 synopsis; 50 CFR 679.23; ADF&G, Oct 6, 2025; SeasonalJobs.dol.gov; Glacier Fish. Accessed Sep 14, 2026.

What do seiners, gillnetters, longliners and trawlers do?

Each boat type is named for its gear, and the gear decides your day. The table uses NOAA’s gear descriptions and what 2026 job postings say the crew actually does.

Boat	How it fishes	Example	What the crew does
Purse seiner	Sets a wall of net around a school of fish, then draws the bottom closed	Menhaden boats out of Moss Point, MS; Alaska salmon seiners	Deploy and retrieve the net, bail fish to the steamer; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Gillnetter	Hangs a net that catches fish by the gills, either anchored (set) or drifting	Bristol Bay drift boats, legally capped at 32 feet	Pick fish from the net by hand, ice and deliver
Longliner	Sets a weighted mainline with up to a thousand baited hooks	Gulf finfish longliner out of Dulac, LA	Bait, set and haul gear, gut and ice fish; trips up to 10 days, night shifts, 75-pound lifts
Trawler	Tows a net along the bottom for shrimp, flounder, whiting or crab	Gulf shrimp trawlers in Palacios, TX and Coden, AL	Set and retrieve nets, sort and head shrimp, ice the catch; crews of 3 to 4, trips of weeks to months
Scallop dredger	Drags a turtle-deflector dredge with 4-inch rings along the bottom	New Bedford, Cape May and Norfolk fleets	Scallops are landed as meats; scallop boats often carry larger crews than other Northeast boats
Catcher-processor	A trawler that catches and freezes fish at sea	Glacier Fish and North Star vessels in Alaska and off Washington and Oregon	Deck crew run winches and nets, processors sort and freeze; 16-hour shifts, trips of 12 to 25 days
Pot or trap boat	Fishes wire or wood traps tied to buoys	Maine lobster, Florida crab, Oregon Dungeness crab	Build and repair traps, pull them, measure the catch and return undersized animals

Sources: NOAA Fisheries gear and sea scallop pages; 5 AAC 06.341; NMFS-NE-274; 2026 SeasonalJobs.dol.gov job orders; Glacier Fish and North Star postings. Accessed Sep 14, 2026.

Northeast crew in NOAA’s survey worked on boats that carried about 5 crew per trip on average, and 28% fished single-day trips while the rest averaged about 7 days out. They reported working about 15 hours a day.

How are commercial fishing crews paid: shares or wages?

Mostly shares, though the Gulf job orders below pay by the hour. In NOAA’s 2018–2019 survey of 478 Northeast crew, 85% were paid through a share system. Those crew said the crew’s portion of the split averaged 45% and the vessel owner’s 55%, and that fuel (72% of respondents), food (59%) and ice (53%) came out of their shares. Only 9% reported earning less than $30,000 a year, while 27% reported $120,000 or more. The authors tie the high incomes partly to scallops, the main fishery for 32% of the crew they surveyed, and note that hired captains may take a bigger slice of the crew share than deckhands.

Some Gulf boats blend the two systems. Zirlott Trawlers in Coden, Alabama posted $18.37 an hour for 2026 or a percentage of catch profits, usually 30% split among a crew of 3 or 4, whichever is greater. Ocean Harvesters’ menhaden job order in Moss Point, Mississippi lists $27.89 an hour and says catch-based pay can run as high as $52 an hour, with the typical range running from the posted wage to $30. J & B Fisheries’ longliner in Dulac, Louisiana lists $24.39 an hour for October 2026 through July 2027, with food and bunks free at sea.

Factory trawlers pay a share and publish ranges. Glacier Fish lists processors on the F/T Northern Glacier at $4,500 to $7,000 a month, an average of $2,800 to $4,800 a trip, with trips of 14 to 22 days. North Star Fishing lists experienced deckhands at $11,600 to $21,000 a month, $5,800 to $10,050 a trip. Before you sign on anywhere, ask what comes off the top, and on boats of 20 gross tons or more federal law requires a written fishing agreement stating the share or wage.

What license do you need to work on a fishing boat?

It depends on the state. Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California license crew, with different rules on who buys the license.

State	Who needs it	Resident fee	Nonresident fee
Alaska	Anyone who handles gear or helps with maintenance, navigation, docking or operation; processing-only workers on processing vessels are exempt	$60 a year; $30 for 7 days, once a year	$220 a year; $30 for 7 days
Washington	Anyone 16 or older working aboard in a state-regulated commercial fishery; license holders’ family members and charter crew are exempt	$40.50	$123
Oregon	Every crew member; the Crew Member license is bought by the boat license holder and can be used by anyone assisting on that boat, or you hold your own Individual license	$127 crew member; $114 individual (2026)	$177 crew member; $170 individual (2026)
California	Anyone 16 or older who assists in taking fish commercially or contributes materially aboard a commercial fishing vessel	$197.90 (2026)	$582.10 (2026)
Maine (lobster)	Anyone helping a Class I lobster license holder must be licensed; a Class II holder may take one unlicensed crew member and a Class III holder up to four	None for the unlicensed crew a Class II or III holder may take	Same

Sources: ADF&G; RCW 77.65.610 and WDFW fee schedule; ODFW 2026 synopsis; CDFW 2026 fee list (includes agent and application fees); Maine Title 12, section 6421. Accessed Sep 14, 2026.

None of the deck, factory or Gulf job orders cited in this article asks for a federal Coast Guard credential. Officer jobs do: Glacier Fish’s mate and engineer openings are posted as licensed positions. If you later want ferry, tug or research-ship work, deckhand jobs explains when a TWIC card or Merchant Mariner Credential is required, and outdoor job certifications covers first aid and safety courses.

How dangerous is commercial fishing?

It is one of the deadliest jobs in the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 24 deaths among fishing and hunting workers in 2024, a rate of 88.8 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, nearly 27 times the 3.3 rate for all workers. Only logging, at 110.4, was higher among the occupations BLS charted.

NIOSH counted 878 U.S. commercial fishing deaths from 2000 through 2019: 288 on the East Coast, 236 in Alaska, 201 in the Gulf, 141 on the West Coast and 12 in Hawaii and the Pacific. Vessel disasters caused 47% and falls overboard 30%. In 2015–2019 the Gulf shrimp trawl fleet lost 20 crew, 12 of them to falls overboard, and on the West Coast seven Dungeness crab fishermen died when three boats capsized crossing Oregon river bars in bad seas. Of the 37 crew who drowned after falling overboard in the Gulf and on the East Coast in that period, none was wearing a life jacket.

Under 46 CFR 28.270, the skipper must run drills at least once a month covering abandon ship, fire, man overboard, flooding and immersion suits, only someone trained to conduct drills may run them, and anyone new who has not done the drills gets a safety orientation before the boat leaves. Vessels fishing beyond 3 nautical miles must pass a Coast Guard dockside exam at least once every five years, and a Bristol Bay red king crab boat cannot register without a current safety decal. Training is cheap or free: Fishing Partnership Support Services offers its two-day drill conductor course free to commercial fishermen from offices in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and AMSEA, with instructors on every coast, often offers commercial fishermen full or partial fee waivers. Buy a life jacket you will actually wear on deck.

How is Alaska different from the rest of the country?

Alaska lands the most fish: NOAA says most 2023 U.S. landings came from the North Pacific region. Bering Sea pollock trawlers fish an A season from January 20 to June 10 and a B season from June 10 to November 1, and the 2025/26 Bristol Bay red king crab fishery ran from October 15, 2025 to January 15, 2026 with a 2.68 million pound catch limit. Bristol Bay salmon net boats can be no longer than 32 feet, and the state’s crew guide says near-shore gillnetters and seiners carry one to six crew.

Factory trawlers are the most open door for people without contacts, because Alaska’s job center says those companies usually hire new workers as processors and promote them to deck. Glacier Fish does not ask at-sea processors for fishing experience, only recent experience in a physically demanding job such as construction, logging, oil fields or agriculture, and makes them eligible for airfare and hotel between the vessel and Seattle after 65 consecutive fishing days. Its deckhand jobs require prior deck experience. The Alaska guide linked above covers crew licenses, season calendars, cannery wages and scams, and open listings are at Alaska jobs.

How do you get hired on a commercial fishing boat?

Through people, crew lists, federal job orders or a processing job, in roughly that order. In NOAA’s Northeast survey, 60% of crew had a family member in the fishing industry, and 16% said finding work on their current boat had been difficult or very difficult.

• Crew lists and port boards. The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance lets members post jobs in free classifieds that expire after three months, and points job seekers to the CrewList Facebook group.
• Federal job orders. Gulf boats that recruit through the H-2B seasonal visa program post job orders on SeasonalJobs.dol.gov, which lists them for U.S. workers; you apply by contacting the boat. Shrimp Hunter 2’s Palacios, Texas trawler job (May 1 to December 15, 2026, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., optional free shared housing) and Hernando Beach Seafood’s Florida job ($17.28 an hour, October 2026 to May 2027) required no experience. Ocean Harvesters wanted one month of seining and Zirlott three months on a trawler.
• Processing first. Factory trawler companies promote from the processing line to deck, and Glacier Fish’s processor posting asks for two references from previous employers and a post-offer drug test, medical and background screen.
• Walk the docks before the season. Gulf job orders start April 1, May 1 or October 1, Oregon crab boats gear up for a December 1 opener, and Texas shrimpers went back out on July 15 in 2026.

Crew usually supply their own rain gear, rubber boots and gloves, according to Alaska’s crew guide, so arrive with them. Open listings are at fishing crew jobs, deckhand jobs and the wider fishing jobs page.