A commercial fishing operation has three insurance problems, and only one of them is the boat.
Hull and machinery answers for the vessel — grounding, fire, sinking, collision, heavy weather — subject to warranties about where it works and where it sits. Protection and indemnity is the marine liability policy, answering for injury to other people, damage to other boats and to docks and pilings, wreck removal and pollution from the vessel. And the third, which decides whether one bad trip ends the business, is crew injury: your deckhands are almost certainly not on workers' compensation, they are seamen with a Jones Act negligence claim and a maintenance and cure obligation running against you, and the coverage built for that is maritime employers liability.
The working waterfront inside a hundred-mile circle of Statesboro, Georgia is small, old and real: shrimp boats out of Darien, Brunswick, Thunderbolt, Tybee, Valona and Shellman Bluff, crab and cast-net operations up the Ogeechee, Canoochee and Altamaha, a handful of offshore snapper and grouper boats, oyster and clam leases, and fish houses and docks that buy, ice, freeze and truck the product inland.
Most of these are one boat and two to four people. Many are second- or third-generation family operations working a hull built in the 1970s or 1980s that has been repowered twice. And a real share of them carry either nothing, or a policy assembled years ago by whoever was available, with terms nobody has read since.
This page is the commercial-harvest companion to our page on charter fishing and marine tour operators. The two look similar from the dock and are not the same account: a charter boat's largest severity item is the paying passengers aboard, and a shrimp boat has none — its severity sits in the crew, the hull and the storm.
| Coverage | What it answers for | What owners get wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Hull & machinery | The vessel and its permanent machinery — grounding, fire, sinking, collision, heavy weather | Stated value set years ago; navigational and lay-up warranties that don't match how the boat is worked |
| Protection & indemnity (P&I) | Third-party injury, damage to other vessels and to docks and pilings, wreck removal, vessel pollution | Assumed to include crew; wordings differ materially between markets |
| Maritime employers liability | Crew injury — Jones Act negligence claims and maintenance and cure | Believed to be handled by a state comp policy, or by paying on shares |
| Gear & equipment | Nets, doors, cables, try nets, rigging, electronics | Assumed to be part of the hull; often narrower perils and sublimits |
| Catch / refrigeration | Product aboard and spoilage from freezer or refrigeration failure | Not standard on every placement; has to be asked for by name |
| Shoreside | Dock, fish house, freezer, forklift, trucks, retail | Left on a personal or residual policy that never contemplated a business |
This is the section worth the page. Crew members of a vessel in navigation are generally treated as seamen, and seamen ordinarily sit outside state workers' compensation and outside the federal Longshore act. What they have instead is a negligence remedy against the vessel owner under the Jones Act, together with the shipowner's traditional obligation of maintenance and cure — a duty to support and treat an injured crew member that attaches largely without regard to fault.
Practically, that means an injury on deck is not a claim with a scheduled benefit and a defined end. It is a negligence suit against the boat and the owner, with a support obligation running in the meantime, litigated under maritime law.
Paying on shares does not alter any of this. A share arrangement is a compensation method, not an employment classification, and calling a deckhand a partner in the trip does not convert a Jones Act claim into something else. The same logic that governs 1099 classification ashore applies with less room to maneuver, because maritime law has its own answer.
Two things follow that an owner can act on immediately:
Working hulls in the Southeast are frequently forty or fifty years old, and age by itself rarely disqualifies a vessel. What age changes is how the number gets set and what happens after a serious loss.
Hull coverage on a working boat is typically written at an agreed or stated value reflecting current market value, not what building the vessel new would cost — because new construction is often a multiple of what the boat is worth. That gap creates two consequences worth understanding before rather than after:
What actually earns a good hull placement on an old boat is documentation: a recent condition and valuation survey, current out-of-water photographs, a maintenance and repower history, and visible evidence of how the vessel is kept. Surveyors and underwriters in this class read the boat, not the balance sheet.
Some owners of older, lower-value hulls make a deliberate decision to buy liability and crew coverage only and self-insure the hull. That can be a defensible business decision, particularly where the boat's market value is modest. It should be made on purpose and written down — and it is not available at all where a lender holds a mortgage on the vessel, since financing typically requires hull coverage with the lender named.
Marine hull policies carry warranties that describe how the vessel is permitted to be used and kept. Three matter in the Southeast:
Write the storm plan down. Where the boat goes, who moves it, how long it takes, and what the fallback is if the marked hole is full. On the Georgia and Carolina coast that document is part of the underwriting rather than a courtesy.
Gear. Hull and machinery is written for the vessel and its permanent machinery. Nets, trawl doors, cables, try nets, rigging and portable electronics are commonly addressed separately — sometimes with narrower perils, sometimes with sublimits, sometimes covered only while aboard rather than while in the water or ashore between seasons. Given that a full set of gear represents real money and is the item most likely to be lost in ordinary working conditions, schedule it deliberately with replacement values, the way any other business schedules equipment that moves.
Catch. Product aboard and spoilage from refrigeration or freezer failure are not standard on every placement, and where offered may be limited in perils or amount. If the boat runs a freezer and a trip's product is meaningful revenue, ask specifically whether machinery breakdown affecting the catch is covered, at what limit and with what deductible — and get it in the policy, not in conversation. Once the product leaves the dock on a truck, it becomes a motor truck cargo question instead, which is a different policy with a different owner.
Protection and indemnity generally addresses pollution emanating from the vessel, which matters because a working boat carries substantial diesel, hydraulic oil and lubricants, and a sinking or grounding at a dock produces an immediate response obligation. Read what the policy says about pollution limits and about response costs specifically, and note that pollution from tanks and equipment ashore at a fish house or dock is a separate question that a vessel policy does not reach — the same seam covered on our contractor pollution liability page, applied to a waterfront yard.
Vessel pollution reporting, financial responsibility and fuel-handling requirements are set by federal and state authority and turn on the vessel and the facility; confirm your own obligations with the U.S. Coast Guard and your state environmental agency rather than relying on any published summary.
Most fishing families are running more than a boat, and the shoreside half is usually the part sitting on a policy that never contemplated a business.
Commercial fishing combines nearly everything underwriters dislike into one account: genuinely hazardous work, injuries occurring far from medical care, a crew liability regime that is a negligence system rather than a benefits schedule, aging steel and wood assets in a corrosive environment, concentration in hurricane-prone waters, and a small number of willing carriers. Expect much of the program to be placed with non-admitted markets — our surplus lines explainer covers what changes when it is — and expect meaningful deductibles.
What an owner controls is the submission. In this class, underwriting is person-specific rather than formulaic, and these are the levers that genuinely move terms:
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving Georgia and the wider Southeast, and working boats are exactly the kind of account that gets hurt by being placed by someone who writes contractors. On a fishing operation review we check whether crew injury is actually answered by maritime employers liability rather than assumed to be comp, whether the hull's stated value reflects today's repower and electronics cost, whether the navigational and lay-up warranties match how the boat is genuinely worked, whether gear and catch are scheduled or presumed, whether the dock and fish house are on a policy that knows there is a business there, and whether the umbrella schedules the marine policies underneath it. One agency, one relationship, all of it read together.
Send your declarations pages, your vessel particulars and your latest survey. We'll tell you whether crew injury is actually answered, where the warranties don't match how you work the boat, and what the gear and catch schedule is missing.
Get a free coverage reviewHull and machinery for the vessel, protection and indemnity for third-party liability and vessel pollution, and maritime employers liability for crew injury — because seamen sit outside state workers' comp. Gear, catch, the dock and the trucks sit around that core.
Generally no. Crew of a vessel in navigation are usually seamen, outside state comp and outside the Longshore act, with a Jones Act negligence remedy plus maintenance and cure. Shares are a pay method, not a classification. Maritime employers liability is the coverage built for it.
Usually yes, on an agreed or stated value reflecting market value rather than new-build cost. Understand that a repair bill exceeding that value can be settled as a constructive total loss, and that a value set years ago quietly becomes underinsurance. A current survey is what earns the placement.
A stated period when the vessel is out of service in a stated location, often at a reduced rate. Along with the navigational warranty and named-storm terms, it describes where the boat may work and sit — and working or mooring outside those terms is a technical breach at exactly the wrong moment.
Not automatically. Gear is commonly a separate schedule with narrower perils or sublimits, and coverage for product aboard and freezer spoilage has to be asked for by name. Schedule the gear with replacement values and get the catch answer written into the policy.
Hazardous work far from medical care, a negligence-based crew regime, older assets in a corrosive environment, hurricane concentration, and few willing carriers. Expect surplus lines paper and real deductibles — and expect the survey, the crew stability and the loss narrative to move terms more than revenue does.
Vessel particulars with a supporting survey, captain background, honest operating area and season shape, the lay-up plan, crew detail including how shares work, a gear schedule, safety and drill records, maintenance and haul-out history, a written named-storm plan, lender requirements, and five years of narrated loss history.
For general information only. Not legal advice and not a quote or contract of insurance. Marine policy forms are not standardized between carriers — hull and machinery, protection and indemnity, maritime employers liability, gear and catch wordings vary materially and must be read as actually issued, including all warranties. Whether a particular worker is a seaman under the Jones Act, or falls under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, depends on the specific facts of the work and is a legal determination; confirm classification with your carrier and counsel. Vessel documentation, safety equipment, examination and licensing requirements are set by federal authority and turn on the vessel and the fishery; confirm your obligations with the U.S. Coast Guard. Fishery management rules, permits and season regulations are set by federal and state authority and change; confirm with the relevant fishery management authority. Vessel and facility pollution reporting and financial responsibility requirements vary; confirm with the U.S. Coast Guard and your state environmental agency. Coverage subject to policy terms, conditions, exclusions and carrier appetite.