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Industry · SBA lending record

SBA loans for shellfish fishing

416 SBA 7(a) loans since 2010. What they were for, how big, how long, and how often they went wrong.

Loans made
416
2010 onward
Typical loan
$95k
median approved
Typical term
10 yr
2.9%
all industries 5.7%

How this industry compares

defaulted within 7 years
Shellfish Fishing
2.9%
Typical industry
5.3%
All industries
5.7%

Default rate is not a judgement on the industry. It tells you how a lender will price your risk, and how much cushion you should build in.

When borrowers got into trouble

share of failures by year
Year 1
6%
Year 2
12%
Year 4
12%
Year 5
19%
Year 6+
50%

Trouble rarely arrives in year one. It arrives when the opening cash is gone — which is an argument for borrowing more working capital, not less.

What this means for your application

A typical loan here runs $95k over 10 years. If you are asking for far more than that, expect harder questions and a longer file. If far less, check which lenders will even take it — many won't go below $150,000.

Find lenders by smallest loan → Check the numbers work →

Source SBA 7(a) FOIA, NAICS 114 Released 2026-06-30 Loans 416

SBA 504 in Finfish Fishing

504 FOIA record

504 is rarely used here — only 28 504 loans to finfish fishing since 2010, because the program is built for owner-occupied real estate and heavy equipment rather than general business use. If you are buying owner-occupied property in this line of work it can still be the cheaper deal — see how 504 works or find a CDC.

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