Raise fish and shellfish for food. Outdoors, on the water, in a small industry the country keeps saying it wants to grow.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$49,630
Entry technician
$35,980
Hatchery or farm manager
$76,480
The federal wage survey does not count aquaculture technicians separately. It folds them into agricultural technicians, where the median is $49,630 a year and the bottom tenth are near $35,980. Salmon operations in Maine and Washington pay above that. Small oyster farms often pay below it.
$16 to $20 an hour
Deckhand or farm technician on an oyster lease or at a hatchery
Many entry jobs are seasonal, running spring through fall. Year-round work is easier to find at hatcheries and research stations than on the water.
$60,000 to $80,000
Hatchery manager or farm site manager
Managers handle water chemistry, stock health, permits and staff. A few years as a technician plus a science background is the usual route.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a high school diploma and learning on site, plus your own waders, boots and foul weather gear. The high end is a four year fisheries or aquaculture degree at in-state public tuition, which is what moves you into management or research rather than what gets you hired. A community college certificate sits in between at roughly $4,000 a year. Boat and water safety training is usually paid for by the employer.
You can enter this field with a high school diploma and learn on site. A degree is what moves you from technician to manager or into research. Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) either way.
Housing on remote sites
Some hatcheries and island farms include accommodation, which changes the real value of the wage.
Government jobs
State and federal fish hatcheries hire technicians with a pension and full health coverage.
Seasonal overtime
Harvest and spawning periods mean long paid days.
You are outside
Not a line on a benefits sheet, but it is why most people stay.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Short. You can be working on a farm the summer after high school.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Biology and chemistry are the useful ones. Being able to swim and handle a boat matters more than you would think.
Get on a farm or in a hatchery
A season
Summer and seasonal jobs are the normal way in. Oyster farms, trout hatcheries and university research stations all hire.
Certificate or associate degree
1 to 2 years
Two-year aquaculture, marine technology or fisheries programs. Many are run by coastal community colleges.
Bachelor's degree, if you want to lead
4 years
Fisheries, aquaculture or marine biology. Needed for hatchery management, research and most government positions.
Specialize
Ongoing
Shellfish, finfish, water quality, fish health or recirculating systems. Each one is a different kind of employer.
Biology
Life cycles, disease and growth are the daily subject matter.
Chemistry
Water quality is chemistry: oxygen, ammonia, salinity, pH.
Math
Feed rates, stocking densities and survival counts.
Shop or mechanics
Pumps, aerators and outboard motors break, usually at 6am.
There is no license to be an aquaculture technician. The regulation falls on the operation: state permits for a shellfish lease, water discharge permits, health rules for shellfish sold to the public, and federal permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for anything in federal waters. Individual technicians may need a boat operator credential from the Coast Guard if they run a vessel with crew.
University of Rhode Island
Offers an aquaculture and fishery science major, with a research vessel and a bay campus.
Coastal community colleges
Two-year marine technology and aquaculture programs in Maine, North Carolina, Washington and Florida.
Land-grant universities
Auburn University, Mississippi State University and Kentucky State University all run long-standing aquaculture programs.
Sea Grant programs
Federally supported programs at coastal universities run training, internships and extension work.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Coast Guard captain's license
A merchant mariner credential lets you run the workboat. Instantly more useful on any farm.
Scuba or commercial diving
Net pen and shellfish operations need divers for inspection and repair.
Water quality and fish health training
The technical skill that separates a deckhand from a technician.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification
The food safety system required for seafood processing. Short course, widely useful.
Strong swimming and boat handling
Non-negotiable on the water, and many employers test it.
Mechanical ability
You will fix a pump in the rain before anyone comes to help.
A driver's license and a truck
Farms are rural and gear is heavy.
Tolerance for cold and early starts
Tides and fish do not care what time you would prefer.
State wildlife agencies and the federal government run fish hatcheries that raise trout, salmon and native species for stocking rivers and supporting recovery programs. The work is steadier than commercial farming, the pay is comparable, and the benefits are far better. It is also conservation rather than food production, which suits some people much more. These jobs are posted on state agency sites and the federal government's official employment site.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start early, often on a tide rather than a clock. Check oxygen and temperature, feed, and look closely at the stock for anything off. On a shellfish farm that means hauling cages, sorting by size, tumbling and re-setting gear from a boat. In a hatchery it means tanks, grading fish, cleaning screens and recording numbers. Afternoons are maintenance: pumps, nets, boats. Wet hands, most of the year.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) puts imported seafood at roughly 75 to 90 percent of what Americans eat. Compare that with beef at around 11 percent. That gap is the whole argument for growing domestic aquaculture.
In 2023 United States aquaculture produced about 688 million pounds of seafood worth roughly $1.6 billion. That is only about 9 percent of domestic seafood by volume but around 25 percent of the value, because farmed shellfish and salmon sell high.
A single adult oyster filters tens of gallons of water a day, pulling out algae and particles. Shellfish farms are one of the few kinds of food production that improve the surrounding environment while operating.
On shellfish farms the working day moves forward roughly an hour each day, because low tide does. Crews start at 4am one week and 10am the next.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.