Untapped waters: Why Newfoundland’s fishery is desperate for young workers — and what it pays

But a fishing income doesn’t behave like a 9-to-5 salary. It swings with prices and quotas, the season is short and owning a boat can mean borrowing millions. Knowing what the work really pays — and what relief is available — matters before you sign on.

Why is N.L.’s fishery short on young harvesters?

Retirements in the fishing industry in the Atlantic province are outpacing recruits. The Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW-Unifor), which represents inshore harvesters in the province, estimates more than 33% of certified harvesters in its membership are 54 or older. The union expects more than 3,000 openings for crew members and owner-operators over the next decade.

FFAW-Unifor president Dwan Street told VOCM that fishing enterprises were traditionally passed down through families, but that’s no longer the case as families shrink and rural communities lose residents.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada surveys suggest direct harvesting jobs in the province fell from about 4,300 in 2011 to 3,100 in 2025, even as landings were worth more than $1.3 billion that year, according to FFAW-Unifor.

To recruit replacements, FFAW-Unifor has teamed up with the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board (PFHCB), the non-profit that registers and certifies commercial harvesters in N.L., and the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Harvester Safety Association on the Fishing Industry New Entrants Initiative. The three-year project is backed by $1.2 million from the provincial government’s Labour Market Partnerships Program and targets secondary schools, trade schools, newcomer associations and career fairs across the province.

What does a fishing job in N.L. pay?

It depends on the boat, the species and, most significantly, the year

The most recent figures for the province from Job Bank, the federal government’s employment and labour market service, date to 2023. They put the median wage for fishing vessel deckhands in N.L. at $30 an hour, with a range of $16 to $100. That was well above the national median of $21.42 at the time.

The bigger variable that impacts incomes is price. Snow crab is the province’s most lucrative fishery, and harvesters went from $7.60 a pound in spring 2022 to $2.20 in 2023. In 2026, harvesters opened at $6 a pound, according to the FFAW-Unifor.

Chad Waterman, a crab harvester in the town of Flatrock, N.L., told CTV that boom-and-bust cycles can scare off newcomers, but in his experience the good years outweigh the bad.

How does EI fit into a fishing income?

Short seasons mean that off-season income matters as much as the catch. Self-employed fishers can claim Employment Insurance (EI) fishing benefits, which are based on fishing earnings rather than hours worked.

Benefits pay 55% of average weekly insurable earnings, up to a maximum of $729 a week in 2026. To calculate those weekly earnings, the federal government divides a fisher’s total fishing earnings by a number called a divisor, which is based on the unemployment rate in their region. In one example from the Government of Canada, a fisher who earned $9,865 in a region with 11.5% unemployment gets a divisor of 16. That works out to weekly insurable earnings of about $617 and a benefit of $339 a week.

Either way, EI replaces only part of a fishing income, and for higher earners, the $729 cap widens the gap. In a 2026 federal evaluation, EI recipients in every focus group agreed the 55% rate was too low.