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r/commercialfishing

▲ 5 r/commercialfishing+2 crossposts

Gutting/Fresh vs. Fillet/Trimming for a future deckhand?

Hey everyone,

I’m a greenhorn currently working my first week at a land-based salmon fish factory. My ultimate goal is to get a job on a deep-sea trawler (targeting cod/whitefish).

I have a choice to make right now and I need advice from people who actually work on boats. I’ve been on the filleting line for 4 days, but now I have the option to either:

  1. Move to the "Fresh" section (Gutting & Cleaning): Learning how to gut the fish, clean the bloodline, and handle raw product at high speed.

  2. Stay and learn Trimming: Focusing on precision, removing bones, and making the fillets look perfect.

From a trawler crew’s perspective: which skill is more valuable for someone looking to get hired on a boat? Does being a fast and efficient "gutter" give me a better edge than being a "trimmer"?

I want to spend my time on land learning the skills that will actually make me useful on a deck during a heavy haul.

Thanks for any advice!

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u/NaiveAssociate5905 — 5 hours ago
▲ 1 r/commercialfishing

Salmon fishing predictions 2026

Hey y’all, just wondering what your opinion on your prediction for how successful this year‘s salmon fishing will be in Alaska. I have an amazing opportunity to work on a small five man crew fishing boat in Alaska even though I’m a fresh green horn. The captain says the crew will split it evenly after expenses and everything’s been taken out and gear of course. I’m trying to get a grasp on how much money I might walk away with. It’s not the reason I’m going to Alaska to fish, but having a general idea of what I could be walking away with, with that type of split would be awesome. Also, if anyone has any tips to stay entertained when I’m not on the boat for when I have the very little free time I do that would be appreciated. I say that because I don’t drink alcohol and I am not a big fan of going to a bar not saying I won’t at all, but with my personality, I would like to have an option to stay away from moments when the crew are consuming substances. I hope you can understand this. I did all this by voice note. Thanks

Edit fishery is in Ketchikan

Seining

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u/CharmingStable9175 — 5 hours ago
▲ 2 r/commercialfishing

Help with a valuation

Hello community. I have a family member who recently passed and I have no idea how to value the assets of this business. Someone is offering $50,000 but I’m not sure what’s fair. I didn’t know where else to ask.

• 2001 Parker 2520 deep Vee pilothouse boat with twin 150 Honda engines on a triple axle trailer,

• a Federal reef fishing permit with restricted species endorsement

• mackerel license

• 1020 lbs red grouper IFQ allocations

commercial license

• 365 almost new stone crab traps and tags

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u/itsimplycarrie_ — 3 hours ago
▲ 7 r/commercialfishing+1 crossposts

Bycatch ≠ Waste

Bycatch” does not mean “waste.”

Bycatch. That word’s getting thrown around a lot right now, especially with politics heating up, and most of the time it’s either misunderstood or flat out used wrong.

I’ve been in the Bering Sea pollock fishery my whole life. Second generation. And I think there needs to be some straight clarification on what “bycatch” actually means.

By definition, it’s simple: it’s anything we catch that isn’t our target species. For us, that means anything that isn’t pollock. That’s it. What it does not mean is “wasted fish.” But that’s how it gets talked about.

Every fishery in the world has bycatch. Longline, pot, gillnet, everything. But for whatever reason, the word only seems to come up when people are talking about trawling.

Now here’s where people get sideways on the numbers. The BSAI pollock fishery runs at about a 1% bycatch rate, which is actually one of the cleanest in the world. But yeah, it’s a big fishery. This year’s quota is around 1.375 million metric tons or over 3 billion pounds of pollock. So people hear “1%” and then hear “30 million pounds” and think that’s 30 million pounds of fish getting dumped over the side.

That’s not reality. Nothing gets shoveled over the side. Zero. Everything that comes up in the net goes into the tanks and gets delivered. Period. We’ve got cameras on deck 24/7, observers, full accountability. There’s no hiding anything even if someone wanted to.

Most of that “bycatch” is made up of species that we’re allowed to retain. That fish gets processed and sold, same as pollock. It’s used. The only species we’re not allowed to process and sell are what’s called prohibited species. Which are salmon, crab, halibut, and herring. And even then, it’s not as simple as “waste.” Salmon and halibut that come up in food-grade condition get donated through SeaShare and end up in food banks.

So when you hear a number like 30 million pounds of bycatch, what that actually means is total weight of everything that isn’t pollock. Not waste. On average, of that 30 million lbs, somewhere around 75–90% of that is species we’re allowed to keep, process, and sell.

So yeah, bycatch is real. It exists in every fishery. But in the pollock fishery, it does not mean what a lot of people think it means. At the end of the day, “bycatch” just means it wasn’t the fish we were targeting. It doesn’t mean it was thrown away.

And if people are going to have opinions about this fishery, they should at least start with that part right.

u/Captain-Galt — 1 day ago
▲ 9 r/commercialfishing

Can’t wait a day longer for Bristol bay

First year greenhorn im 19 never been so excited for something in my life. Im nervous to about the sleep deprivation but fuck I just need a change of pace. So fucking sick of college I hate this shit. If all goes good and the captian says I did good enough I should hopefully be able to get more jobs and drop out. I can’t wait I’m so excited

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u/Secret_Chocolate1403 — 2 days ago
▲ 5 r/commercialfishing

Not paid ☹️

Hi all, i did some crew work on a commercial scallop boat in Jersey (channel islands, uk) it has been over a week now and i still haven’t received any payment! How do i go about this?

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u/M4x_212 — 4 days ago