1 Summary

The Northeast U.S. is home to several economically important commercial fisheries, representing a variety of gear types. Within the region, commercial revenues are readily available to NOAA Fisheries, while cost data have generally been the limiting factor in calculating vessel profits. This site utilizes cost information collected from the Greater Atlantic Region Commercial Fishing Business Cost Survey for 2022 to supplement fishing revenues in order to complete this profit equation. Both operating profit (total revenues - operating costs) and total profit (total revenues - total costs) are calculated. Profit margins, defined as profit divided by revenue, are presented to show how gross revenues translate into returns for vessel owners. Results are summarized by fishing fleets, both primary fishery and primary gear. Median operating profit margins by primary gear range between 25% (gillnet) and 46% (scallop dredge). Among Council managed fisheries, median operating profit margins range between 40% (groundfish) and 46% (scallop). Median total profits and margins are slightly positive or slightly negative for most fishing fleets, with generally higher mean values. These findings suggest a relatively small group of vessels with strong economic performance during 2022 and a larger group of vessels with limited to no profit. Additional information on profit margin results can be found in Chapter 10.

The grouping of vessels on this site into primary fishery and gear is based on their highest source of revenue during calendar year 2022. Only vessels that provided a complete response to the Greater Atlantic Region Commercial Fishing Business Cost Survey for 2022 are included (see Chapter 4.1 for the definition of a complete survey response). All fisheries and gears are represented in Chapters 6-10 as allowed by data confidentiality rules. Below is a brief summary of the results presented in Chapters 6-9, with Chapter 10 summarized in the above paragraph. See Chapter 11 for ways in which these results can be used as well as data limitations.

Chapter 6 provides a summary of fleet ex-vessel revenues. These values are mainly queried from the Catch Accounting and Monitoring System (CAMS), a collaborative database developed by the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). Mean and median values from responding vessels show substantially higher vessel-level revenues for some gear groups (e.g. scallop dredge, trawl) than others (e.g. gillnet, handgear). These revenue trends are similar to those observed across the entire survey sampling frame. Similarly, some fisheries (e.g. scallop, squid, mackerel, and butterfish) show substantially higher mean and median vessel revenues than others (e.g. fluke, black sea bass, and scup, lobster).

Chapter 7 provides a summary of costs, which mainly are derived from the 2022 cost survey. A breakdown of costs into major categories shows important insight into the differences between fisheries and gear groups. For example, crew-intensive fisheries such as groundfish, scallop, and squid, mackerel, and butterfish show 35-43% of total costs being payments to crew and 17-33% being trip expenses. In contrast, lobster shows 25% of total costs as payments to crew and 34% of total costs as trip expenses. Important similarities are present as well. For example, overhead costs represent between 5-10% of total costs for nearly all fisheries and gear groups.

Operating profit is presented in Chapter 8. This metric is calculated by taking gross revenues (Chapter 6) and subtracting trip expenses and crew payments (Chapter 7). Operating profit is an important measure of the short-run economic viability of fishing businesses. If vessels can not cover their operating expenses, fishing trips are not profitable and vessels are theoretically better off shutting down to avoid further losses. All gear groups show positive mean and median operating profits as expected, though a small number of observations are negative. These may be explained by vessels participating in other activities outside of commercial fishing in which costs are incurred but revenue is not generated.

Total profit is presented in Chapter 9. This metric is calculated by taking gross revenues (Chapter 6) and subtracting all costs (Chapter 7). Total profit provides important insight into the overall economic viability of fishing businesses. The results show vessels which generated the majority of revenue from scallop or squid, mackerel, butterfish fisheries during 2022 yielded the highest total profits on a mean or median basis. Several fleets show negative mean or median vessel profits by gear group (gillnet, handgear, longline) and fishery (dogfish, herring, HMS, monkfish, striped bass). Negative profit during 2022 can be driven by a variety of factors, including high costs, low revenue, as well as vessel activity that incurs costs but does not generate revenue (e.g. leisure uses of a commercial fishing vessel). Since we are unable to determine the most significant drivers of negative vessel profits during 2022, assessing the overall viability of fishing businesses from one year of data is challenging. However, these results do provide insight into which fishing fleets show greater/lesser economic viability during 2022.