Our 2023 survey seeks to better understand the costs associated with commercial fishing in the Northeast for calendar year 2022.
Our Social Sciences Branch has launched a voluntary survey to collect information about calendar year 2022 commercial fishing expenses. This survey is being sent to active, federally-permitted commercial fishing vessel owners in the Northeast’s Greater Atlantic region, which extends from Maine to North Carolina.
The survey closed on July 31, 2023. Currently, this survey is the only way NOAA Fisheries collects this kind of information in our region. We will use the data collected to achieve the following goals:
This cost survey was last conducted in 2016. Since then, there have been many changes associated with resource availability and management policies. These changes affected the economic performance of fishing businesses. To help quantify those impacts on fishing businesses and communities and increase industry participation, we’ve made a number of changes and improvements to our survey:
Any owner of a recently active (active in either 2021 or 2022) federally permitted commercial fishing vessel in our region that used the following gear types may respond to the survey:
If an individual owns multiple commercial vessels, they will complete a single survey for only one of their vessels.
Vessel owners have four ways to take our survey:
Vessel owners can take the survey online. The link to take the survey is also included in our emails and mailed letters.
A hardcopy survey packet will be sent to those who choose not to take the online survey. Packets will be sent to the addresses associated with permit applications. The survey packet will contain the survey, instruction sheet, and a prepaid return envelope. We’re also including answers to some frequently asked questions, and survey results from previous years. Survey packets can be requested at any time by contacting the individuals listed under the “Project Leads” section below.
A vessel owner who prefers to take the survey by phone or webinar can schedule an interview by contacting the individuals listed under the “Project Leads” section below.
We're working with the survey firm ICF Macro Inc., to schedule phone and virtual interviews.
To ensure that we connect with as many vessel owners as possible, we may shift and/or extend deadlines. Updates will be made to this web page to reflect any changes.
We're collecting commercial fishing cost information from the 2022 calendar year. This includes vessel, at-sea operation, business overhead, and crew expenses. We’re also collecting information on quota leasing costs and earnings, and the value of the vessel and vessel permits. Examples of specific expenses include:
Yes. Your participation and individual responses to this survey are confidential. All data appearing on our data visualization tool website and in reports will be presented in a manner that protects confidentiality. Individual data can only be accessed by our staff and affiliates with signed non-disclosure agreements.
Cost information provided by survey participants allows us to track trends in costs over time and understand the economic performance of fishing fleets. These analyses in turn inform management decisions. Aggregated data summaries found on our cost data visualization tool can also be used by fishermen for business planning purposes.
To view summaries of previous cost survey data, please visit our data visualization tool. We have also published a full report on methods and results for those surveys. We will add 2023 survey data to the tool once the data have been processed.
The Fishadelphia team. Credit: Dr. Talia Young.
Four North Atllantic right whales.
A Northeast Fisheries Science Center biologist collecting data during buoyless lobster trap tests.
Atlantic sea scallops