An independent price index for Alaska halibut & sablefish IFQ (individual fishing quota).
It turns scattered broker listings into one cross-broker view by regulatory area and product
type, surfaces the confirmed sale prices brokers report, and anchors everything to NOAA's
official ex-vessel value — plus the price history those listings don't keep.
How the numbers are built
Sources: public listings from multiple quota brokers (currently alaskaboat.com and
Dock Street Brokers), refreshed daily.
Median by area & type: listings are grouped by regulatory area (2C, 3A, …)
and product type, then we publish the median, range, and listing count for each.
Lease vs. buy split: we separate an annual lease from a quota-share
purchase by a species-specific price line grounded in NOAA's official ex-vessel value —
a one-year lease can't cost much more than the fish lands for, while a perpetual share sells for
a multiple of it. Brokers don't label which is which, so we infer it (halibut ex-vessel
≈$7.42/lb, sablefish ≈$1.89/lb, 2025).
Confirmed sales: when a broker note reports a completed sale (“SOLD @ $X”)
we capture it as a real transaction price — not just an ask — and track the
typical gap between asking and sold, kept as a running history.
Ex-vessel benchmark: we show NOAA's official annual standard ex-vessel price —
what the fish itself lands for (90 FR 61380) — so you can read quota asks as a
multiple of it.
History: every daily snapshot is archived, so you can see how an area's prices move.
Independent: we don't broker quota, so there's no incentive to shade a number.
Important caveats
Most listings are asking prices; confirmed sales are labeled separately and
come from broker-reported notes. Always verify before trading.
Coverage depends on what brokers list publicly; thin areas may show only a few listings.
The lease/share split is inferred from price, not a broker label — near the boundary it
can misclassify a listing. The ex-vessel benchmark is an annual statewide figure.
Not affiliated with any broker, NOAA, or the IPHC.