Sea State

What Sea State does

Sea State, Inc. is an independent fisheries consulting firm founded in 1996 by Karl Haflinger, a practitioner with experience in both commercial fishing and fisheries science. The company operates as a trusted third-party intermediary between fishing companies/ cooperatives and government data sources, specializing in real-time bycatch avoidance and quota management across the Bering Sea. Its primary clients are 185 fishing vessels organized across 30 management sectors, including AFA Pollock fleets, the Amendment 80 sector, and the Freezer Longline Coalition — each regulated by distinct IPAs and PSC constraints that require continuous in-season monitoring.

The company's core technology stack integrates NOAA observer data, catch accounting, electronic fish tickets, VMS, AIS, and electronic logbooks into a unified monitoring platform delivered through member portals. Built on this data foundation, Sea State operates a portfolio of services: Technical Support (quota tracking portals, automated bycatch alarms, weekly reporting), the Rolling Hotspot Closure Program (daily salmon-bycatch monitoring with weekly/biweekly closure-area analysis informed by VMS and historical chum salmon genetics), Amendment 80 Bycatch Performance Reports (daily traffic-light monitoring of vessel bycatch rates), Freezer Longline Coalition reporting, and Data and Policy Analysis. The firm also implements AFA Pollock IPA agreements and issues closure violation notices to fleets under 100% observer coverage or electronic monitoring.

Sea State monetizes through subscription-based information services sold to fishing companies and cooperatives, with publicly listed pricing tiers of $799/month (Standard) and $1,599/month (Premium), though actual contracts are negotiated B2B. The company is privately held by founder Karl Haflinger, with a small team (1–10 employees) including a database expert (Eric Torgerson) and data and policy analysts (Steve Martell and Merrill Rudd). Go-to-market is driven by industry reputation and direct relationships rather than marketing; the company carries no disclosed funding, no patents, and no external partnerships.

Name

Sea State

Legal name

Sea State Inc

Website

https://seastateinc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sea State is an independent fisheries consulting firm that provides subscription-based bycatch avoidance, quota tracking, and real-time regulatory monitoring for 185 Bering Sea commercial fishing vessels across the AFA Pollock, Amendment 80, and Freezer Longline sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fisheries Bycatch Avoidance Consulting

NAICS

Other Support Activities for Water Transportation (48839)

SIC

Fishing, Hunting And Trapping (900)

akta.pro primary industry

Coastal & Marine Resources Administration (Oceans, Fisheries, Shorelines) (BPAIAMAI)

Keywords

• Fisheries consulting
• Bycatch avoidance
• Quota tracking
• Fishery monitoring
• Catch accounting

Headquarters

HQ city

Vashon

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription-based Information Services: Fishing companies and cooperatives subscribe to Sea State's services including real-time data monitoring, bycatch alerts, weekly reporting, and quota tracking through client portals. Services are provided on a recurring subscription basis.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Sea State is an independent consulting company that acts as a trusted third-party intermediary for commercial fishing companies and cooperatives, aggregating real-time data from NOAA observer programs, electronic fish tickets, VMS, AIS, and electronic logbooks to deliver bycatch avoidance services. Core offerings include quota tracking via a client portal, automated bycatch alarms, weekly reporting, rolling hotspot closure programs for salmon bycatch, and time-area closures using VMS data. Services are provided on a subscription basis to fishing enterprises operating in the Bering Sea and Pacific Northwest.

Product overview

Sea State is an independent consulting company that offers a portfolio of fisheries bycatch avoidance services rather than a single unified software product. The core offerings include Technical Support (quota tracking and bycatch monitoring), Quota Tracking (real-time portal for catch vs. allocations), Bycatch Alarms (automated threshold alerts), Weekly Reporting (species pattern summaries), Rolling Hotspot Closure Program (salmon bycatch avoidance), and Time-Area Closures (fine-scale VMS-based closures). Supporting services include Catch Accounting, VMS-AIS tracking, Electronic Fish-Tickets, Observer Program data analysis, Environmental Data analysis, Electronic Logbooks, and Data and Policy Analysis. Specialized programs target specific fisheries including the AFA Pollock Bycatch Program, Amendment 80 Bycatch Performance Reports, and Freezer Longline Coalition reporting. The company operates as a trusted third-party intermediary, aggregating real-time data from fishing vessels and government sources to help the industry minimize bycatch while maximizing fishing efficiency.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fisheries Information Services
• Technical Support
• Quota Tracking
• Time-Area Closures
• Bycatch Alarms
• Weekly Reporting
• Rolling Hotspot Closure Program
• Catch Accounting
• Data and Policy Analysis
• AFA Pollock Bycatch Program
• Amendment 80 Bycatch Performance Reports
• Freezer Longline Coalition Reporting

Quantifiable outcome

• Covers 185 fishing vessels across 30 management sectors
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission: An interstate commission supporting Pacific coast fisheries data, including coast-wide recreational and commercial harvest monitoring. It performs a regional data-coordination role analogous to Sea State's Bering Sea third-party communication function.

Emerging players

• Global Fishing Watch: An NGO-backed platform that uses satellite AIS data to monitor commercial fishing activity globally and provides public-facing bycatch and transparency analytics. It overlaps with Sea State's real-time data sharing and visualization mission but is free and publicly funded, making it both a complement and a substitute.
• OceanMind: Provides satellite-based fisheries monitoring, vessel compliance, and bycatch risk analytics to governments and fisheries globally. It is an emerging technology-driven peer in the same fisheries compliance/MRV (monitoring, reporting, verification) category that Sea State serves.
• Pole Star Global (PurpleTracker / Maritime Domain Awareness): Commercial vessel tracking and maritime domain awareness vendor with fisheries compliance analytics built on AIS/VMS feeds. It represents a tech-enabled emerging entrant that could commercialize competing bycatch and fleet-monitoring services to the same cooperative buyers.

Broad incumbents

• CLS Group (Collecte Localisation Satellites): A leading commercial operator of satellite-based VMS/AIS services that supplies vessel position data to fisheries management programs worldwide. CLS sits upstream of Sea State's analytics and could move downstream into the analytics layer Sea State sells to cooperatives.
• NOAA Fisheries (Alaska Fisheries Science Center / Alaska Regional Office): The federal agency that produces much of the underlying observer, VMS, and catch data Sea State analyzes. AFSC and AKRO are the original source of NOAA observer program data and electronic fish tickets that Sea State integrates, and they publish seasonal bycatch reports that compete for the same cooperative attention.
• North Pacific Fishery Management Council: The federal council that sets the BSAI and GOA bycatch limits and IPA frameworks that Sea State's programs help implement. The Council's decisions directly determine demand for Sea State's rolling hotspot closures and traffic-light performance reporting services.

Others

• Alaska Fisheries Information Network (AKFIN): A public data aggregator that compiles Alaska catch and fish-ticket data used by Sea State and its clients. It is an upstream data provider and adjacent enabler rather than a direct competitor, but expanded AKFIN analytics could overlap with Sea State's reporting services.

Direct peers

• MRAG Americas: Fisheries science consulting firm providing observer services, bycatch analyses, and stock assessments to fisheries management bodies. Like Sea State, it is a private consultancy delivering fisheries monitoring and data services to cooperative and regulatory clients.
• Archipelago Marine Research: Provides third-party at-sea observer and catch-monitoring services for Pacific groundfish and shellfish fisheries, with a similar role as an independent data intermediary between regulators, scientists, and fishing fleets — closely analogous to Sea State's IPA support work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sea-state-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sea State