Raise fish and shellfish on a farm in the water. Feeding, health checks, nets and boats.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $61,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $41,000 at the lower end to about $89,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
Up to 2 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $17,500, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$61,000
Lower end
$41,000
Upper end
$89,000
Job Bank's page for aquaculture technicians gives a national median of $29.12 an hour, about $61,000 a year full time, with a low of $19.50 and a high of $43.00. It counts this job with other biological technicians, so it is a guide, not a farm pay scale.
$32.99 an hour
The median in Alberta for the group, with British Columbia close at $32.85
Newfoundland and Labrador is $31.25 and New Brunswick $27.24. Manitoba is lowest at $22.00. Remote sites often cover travel and accommodation on top of pay.
8 days on, 6 days off
A common pattern at remote salmon farm sites
You live on a barge or in a camp during your rotation, with meals covered, then get a long block off. It is a big reason people either love this job or leave it.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $17,500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is zero because many sites hire with no credential and train you on the job, and they usually pay for the marine tickets once you start. The high end is a two year aquaculture or marine technology diploma plus paying for the basic safety and small vessel courses yourself. Either way this is one of the cheapest entries anywhere on the site, and the tickets matter more than the diploma for getting a first job.
Cheap either way. The tickets matter more than the diploma for a first job, and many employers pay for them once you are hired.
Room and board on rotation
Meals and accommodation are covered while you are at a remote site.
Long blocks of time off
Rotational schedules give you whole weeks at home.
Company benefits
The large salmon companies offer health, dental and retirement plans, unlike most fishing work.
Year-round employment
Fish have to be fed every day, so this is not a seasonal industry.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Get your safety tickets, get hired, learn the species on site.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Biology and shop are the useful ones. Boat and swimming experience helps a lot.
Marine safety tickets
Weeks
Basic safety training and a small vessel operator course. Some employers pay for these after they hire you.
Certificate or diploma (optional)
1 to 2 years
One or two years in aquaculture or marine technology at a college such as North Island College or the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University.
First site job
Year 1
Feeding, net checks, mortality removal, sampling and cleaning. You learn fish health by looking at fish every day.
Specialize or lead
3 to 8 years
Move into fish health, hatchery work, diving, technical systems or site management.
Biology
Fish health, parasites, growth and water quality.
Chemistry
Oxygen, salinity and treatment chemistry.
Math
Feed conversion, stocking densities and growth tracking.
Shop and small engines
Pumps, generators, boats and feed systems break constantly.
Physical education
Hauling nets and gear in bad weather is daily work.
You do not need a professional licence to work as an aquaculture technician. The site does. Fisheries and Oceans Canada licenses aquaculture operations, sets rules on fish health, movement of live fish and reporting, and runs a separate regime in British Columbia. Provinces add leases and environmental conditions. What you personally need are the marine safety certificates required to be on the water and, for some roles, a commercial diving or boat operator ticket.
British Columbia
North Island College on Vancouver Island, close to most of the province's salmon farms.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John's, which offers certificates, diplomas and degrees in ocean and fisheries fields.
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
New Brunswick Community College and Nova Scotia Community College run aquaculture and marine programs near the farms.
On site
Large salmon companies run their own training and will hire people with no aquaculture background.
Quebec has a single aquaculture program, a 3 year DEC (Diploma of College Studies) taught in French at Grande-Rivière in the Gaspé, with a distance option.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
The program asks for Secondary IV math (Cultural, Social and Technical, or higher) and Secondary IV environmental science.
Techniques d'aquaculture DEC (231.A0)
3 years
At the École des pêches et de l'aquaculture du Québec (the Quebec school of fisheries and aquaculture), part of Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles. The only Quebec school teaching both saltwater and freshwater farming.
Or study at a distance
Live online classes plus recorded material. Distance students travel to Grande-Rivière for 5 to 6 day sessions about five times a year.
Four modules, three internships
Fish farming, shellfish and seaweed farming, business management, then new species. Each module earns its own certificate, and 3 part-time workplace internships are built in.
Work or go on
Graduates work on fish farms, in hatcheries, government services and research institutes. The DEC also opens university programs.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Small vessel operator proficiency
Lets you run the site's boats yourself instead of waiting for someone who can.
Commercial diver certification
Net inspection and repair. One of the most demanding roles on a salmon site.
Fish health technician training
Sampling, sea lice counts and working with the company veterinarian.
Marine diesel and electrical
Feed barges and generators run the site, and someone has to keep them going.
Recirculating system operation
Land-based farms use complex water treatment systems and pay for people who understand them.
Marine first aid
Required on most sites, and the nearest hospital is a long boat ride away.
Comfort on the water in bad weather
If you get seasick easily, try a site job before you commit to a diploma.
Forklift and crane tickets
Useful at hatcheries and processing sites.
Data and record keeping
Feed, mortality and treatment records are legally required and audited.
Land-based farming is growing. Instead of net pens in the ocean, fish are raised in tanks on shore with water cleaned and reused. The work looks more like operating a water treatment plant than farming: pumps, filters, oxygen systems and alarms at 3am. It suits people who like machinery and want to live in one place instead of working a rotation, and the skills also transfer to municipal water and wastewater jobs.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
On a salmon site you are up early, out on the pens checking nets, moorings and mortality. Feeding runs through the day, controlled from a barge with underwater cameras so you can see when the fish stop eating. You sample fish for weight and health, count sea lice, log everything and fix whatever failed overnight. Weather cancels some tasks and adds others. At a hatchery it is quieter and indoors: tanks, water chemistry, grading and moving young fish.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Canada exported $1.1 billion of farmed fish and shellfish in 2024, Fisheries and Oceans Canada reports. Farmed Atlantic salmon alone was $945 million, and 94% of the exports went to the United States.
Feeding is controlled from a barge using underwater cameras. When pellets start falling past the fish uneaten, the operator stops the feeder, because every wasted pellet is money lost.
Oysters, mussels and scallops filter their food from the water, so a shellfish farm never has to feed its stock. The work is boats, lines and cages rather than feed barges.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada highlights integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, where shellfish and seaweed are grown beside fish pens so they use the nutrients the fish release. Canada has been a leader in testing it.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Farming, forestry and fishing first, then the rest of the field. See every career in science and environment.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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