Oregon’s Seafood Processing Industry
December 23, 2025In 2024, Oregon had 40 employers and 950 employees turning flaky fish and armored crustaceans into succulent seafood ready for cooking and eating. This was a 15% decrease in employment from 2023 and it’s the first time employment has dipped below 1,000 workers since 2004.
Commercial fishers landed about 201 million pounds of fish and shellfish in Oregon in 2024, roughly 47 pounds per Oregonian. Nearly 60% of this volume consisted of pacific whiting, also known as hake, which is mostly used to make surimi. Total harvests had a dockside value of $55 million, an increase of 6% from the year before. Much of this increase can be attributed to a strong albacore season. Fisherman landed 4.9 million pounds of albacore in 2024, more than twice as much as was landed in 2023. Fishermen sold a small portion of the harvest off their vessels or at markets directly to consumers. Most, however, was sold to processors and buyers, then exported or sold to wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and consumers.
Exporting Oregon’s Seafood Around the World
The seafood processing industry – part of the manufacturing sector – includes businesses that clean, freeze, can, smoke, salt, and dry seafood. It also includes firms that shuck and pack shellfish. Although Oregon currently doesn’t have any, it also would include processor ships that do these operations at sea. Except for certain fishermen licensed to sell fresh fish from their boats, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife requires commercial fishers to sell their harvest to licensed wholesale fish dealers or licensed fish buyers. Many of these dealers and buyers are also processors.
Oregon exported $48.8 million worth of fish, crustaceans, and aquatic invertebrates in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Canada was by far the leading foreign destination, taking 46% of all exports. Nigeria, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Ghana were other major destinations. Canada’s largest import was crab, followed by whole fish. Japan took a mix of fish fillets and whole fish. Nigeria, Ukraine, and Ghana each imported frozen hake almost exclusively. Vietnam imported albacore. About one-third of seafood exports are as whole frozen fish, presumably with further processing done in the destination country.
The number of seafood processing businesses had been slowly declining since 2007, but that trend reversed in 2015. Oregon’s processing industry gained five businesses that year. Since 2014 Oregon has added 17 seafood processing operations. But the trend toward more consolidation may continue. Bornstein Seafoods shifted its Newport operation to Astoria, leaving Newport with only a handful of processors. Just a few processors account for most of the large facilities in Oregon. However, there has been a new trend of smaller, boutique processors operating up and down the coast. Consolidation has also occurred in the Oregon fishing fleet. Three ports: Astoria, Newport, and Charleston, had about 84% of all commercial fish landings by value in Oregon in 2024. Smaller ports like Garibaldi, Depoe Bay, and Florence struggle to find money for infrastructure, dredging, and jetty maintenance that can attract vessel owners and seafood processors.
Employment Trends in Seafood Processing
The seafood processing industry fared relatively well during the Great Recession, but there has been some employment loss since the Pandemic Recession. Annual average employment peaked in 2019 at 1,338 jobs and has since declined 29% to 950 jobs in 2024. Although employment in seafood processing often fluctuates from year to year, the job losses associated with the pandemic recession are larger than others in recent years. Some facilities closed temporarily due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and this, along with a tight labor market, may have had longer-term impacts on their ability to attract workers. Another possible explanation for lower industry employment is that facilities may have increased their use of employment agencies to get workers. These workers have their employment recorded in a different industry.
Another, smaller, peak in seafood processing employment typically occurs in January. Although the weather is often dangerously bad at this time, December or January is usually the beginning of the Dungeness crab harvest. Crab is often Oregon’s most valuable single fishery. In 2024, 23.9 million pounds were landed, a decrease of nearly 36% from 2023, with a value of $99.5 million. The crab harvest is a derby fishery; it’s first come, first served as boats and crews race to scoop up as much as they can before someone else does. The result is a glut of crab landing on processors’ docks that must be cleaned, cooked, picked, and frozen in short order. Seasonal employees allow processors to get through the short-lived crab bonanza.
The skill requirements are modest for many seafood processing jobs. Line jobs are generally entry level. Applicants often must pass a drug screening test and a criminal background check. The work is often 12-hour shifts, seven days per week during the busy seasons. The demand for workers in tight labor and housing markets make it difficult if not impossible to find enough local workers. Accordingly, companies often recruit from outside the area and help provide or arrange transportation and housing. Overtime is a part of the job and the base pay is often close to minimum wage. Other jobs with processors, such as truck drivers and quality inspectors, require more skill and pay more.
Other Processors
Oregon has a number of businesses that handle and process seafood aside from the major processors. If seafood processing is a sideline for a business, it may be counted in another industry because businesses are categorized according to their main operation. There are a handful of oyster farms along the coast that shuck and package oysters, although their main business is farming the oysters. Oregon Oyster Farms in Newport and Clausen Oysters in North Bend grow oysters and ship them worldwide.
Other firms that distribute seafood or sell wholesale or retail may also do some processing. The Garibaldi Cannery on Tillamook Bay is one such multi-purpose firm. The company does processing, buying, and retail and helps keep the port at Garibaldi an active fishing port. Small firms are more common for salmon and albacore tuna. The websites for the Oregon Albacore Commission and the Oregon Salmon Commission each list several dozen firms that handle these seafood products and provide canned, frozen, and fresh fish.
Out-of-State Opportunities
Some seafood processors recruit Oregonians to work in out-of-state plants, primarily in Alaska during the summer months. Companies such as Trident Seafoods, Signature Seafoods, and Ocean Beauty routinely recruit employees for their Alaska operations. Although the jobs may be listed in Oregon, out-of-state jobs don’t count as official Oregon employment and are not included in this analysis.
The Alaska processing work is similar to that in Oregon: few skill or experience requirements, working on a processing line, 12- to 16-hour days, seven days per week. The difference is the geographic isolation. Many Alaska facilities are in remote locations and employees live in dormitory style housing in company towns.
Seafood Processing in Schools
In 2023, the Oregon Coast Visitors Association and the Economic Development Association of Lincoln County teamed up to introduce a seafood butchery program in high schools across the coast. The program was initially deployed across five high schools in five of the seven Oregon Coast counties. The project was created to promote skilled workers in the seafood industry, keep more seafood local, and to connect students with the Oregon Coast through food. Using a seafood literacy curriculum, students learn seafood butchery skills through hands-on practice with various Oregon-landed seafood, including Dungeness crab, bivalves, and Dulse, and then turn that seafood into a meal. For the 2024-2025 school year, four additional schools implemented the program, raising the total to nine high schools participating across the Oregon Coast.