With spring in the air and higher prices for halibut and black cod, optimism is blooming at Alaska's largest firm selling fishing boats and permits.
"We are heading into this year with some real optimism," said Doug Bowen, founder and consultant for Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer, the biggest marine brokerage in Alaska. "We are seeing better prices for halibut, sablefish and salmon."
Early spring harvests of halibut brought fishermen $9.25 a pound in Homer and Seward, the highest price ever, Bowen said.
"We are up to a much better start than in the last couple of years," said Maddie Lightsey, Bowen's daughter, who serves as president and owner of the company. "The industry on the whole was on the bottom for a while. 2025 was kind of a rebuilding year, with people still trying to recover from the crash. We are seeing a lot more people trying to sell boats than to buy."
"It's a buyer's market. We are seeing a larger gap between asking prices and sales prices. Almost everyone is going to negotiate.
"2021 and 2022 were really good years for the industry and asset values were inflated," she said. Then in 2022 and 2023 the fishing industry as a whole was crashing financially.
The years 2022 through 2024 were rough ones.
Bristol Bay had a huge run of sockeye salmon in 2022, so there was an oversupply and decreased demand and a huge carryover of red salmon into 2023. At the same time, sales of salmon to Japan, traditionally a strong market for Alaska's wild salmon, dropped because the yen was very weak and the U.S. dollar was very strong. Alaska fishermen also lost a lot of business in the international market.
Alaska's fishing industry lost $1.9 billion in 2023 and it took a while to climb out of that. "We are still climbing out of that," Lightsey said.
By 2024, operating costs were still very high. There was a ban on importing Russian seafood into the U.S., but other countries were still buying from Russia. The U.S. ban on importing Russian seafood went into effect in 20, but it wasn't until December of 2023 that holes in that ban were closed, through additional legislation to ban Russian fish coming from China.
Lightsey credits the U.S. Department of Agriculture for purchasing billions of
"We are clearly doing better now," Bowen said. "We are starting to see that play out in the boat market, quota market and permits."
Alaska Boats and Permits dates back to 1997 when it was started by two broke fishermen, a retired librarian and a recovering attorney, he said. Bowen himself was one of those broke fishermen. "I couldn't fish anymore because of health issues and I had to do something," he said. Having been a commercial fisherman since 1985, he wanted to stay connected to the industry. Today, Alaska Boats and Permits clients come from every fishery in Alaska and from all over the U.S.
"The clients are the best part," Bowen said. "Getting to work with fishermen and positively contributing to the industry is really rewarding."
"We are in a good spot right now," said Lightsey, who serves on the board of the North Pacific Fisheries Association in Homer.
The industry still faces huge problems, including the greying of the fleet and replacing aging vessels.
But Bowen and Lightsey see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"Fishermen are adaptable and resilient," she said. "The industry will come out of it on the other side of it stronger than it was."
