Many commercial fishermen are hanging up their nets

GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- At America's oldest seaport, few new boats have entered the commercial fishing business in decades, and few young people are entering the profession.

Veteran fishermen — including many following the trade of fathers and grandfathers — are unhappy and angry. They say they're not catching enough fish, they're not getting paid enough for what they catch, and they blame government restrictions for destroying their livelihood.

"The fishermen don't want to see their kids on the boats," says Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association. "There is no future for them in the business."

The sentiment is similar in other U.S. ports. The nation's commercial fishermen have been hit by limits on their catches, lower prices for their haul and higher prices for fuel. Combined with a recession and the danger of working in the country's least-safe industry, the situation is prompting more fishermen, most of whom are small, independent operators, to hang up their nets.

"It's definitely a watershed moment in the fishing industry," says Jerry Fraser, editor in chief of National Fisherman magazine, which covers the industry.

How many fishermen have left the business is difficult to say. Reliable figures are hard to come by. But there were 42,000 fewer commercial boats in 2007 than the 120,000 in 1996, according to the Coast Guard. And 90% of fishermen are small-business owners, most with a single boat, Fraser says.

Almost perversely, the fishermen's problems come when the time might be ripe to cash in. Nutritional experts are touting the health benefits of seafood, and many consumers are casting a wary eye on the quality of imported fish, which represents more than 80% of the seafood consumed by Americans. There's also a move during the current recession to buy U.S. products.

But the U.S. catch is falling. American fishermen landed 9.3 billion pounds, or $4.2 billion worth, of fish in 2007. That's the smallest quantity since 2000 and second-smallest in 20 years, the most recent numbers available from the government's National Marine Fisheries Service show.

Signs of trouble in the industry can be seen on every coast:

•A January report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the average shrimp boat owner in the Gulf of Mexico doesn't make a profit each year. For the average boat, "the financial and economic situation is bleak," the report concludes.

•For the second-consecutive year, salmon fishermen do not expect to be allowed to fish off the California and Oregon coasts when the salmon season begins May 1. Dwindling salmon stocks prompted the federal government to close the fishery last year — a move that the California Department of Fish and Game said would cost more than 2,263 jobs.