Catch fish and shellfish for a living. No tuition, no degree, and no guarantee of what you make.
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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
$36,630
Green deckhand, part season
$20,000
Experienced crew or permit holder
$90,000
The middle figure, $36,630 a year, is the published national median for Fishing and Hunting Workers in 2025. The federal wage survey does not publish a low to high band for this job, because most fishers are self employed or paid a share of the catch instead of an hourly wage. The low and high here are our estimate of what the two ends look like, not survey numbers.
A cut of the catch
The boat sells the trip, expenses come off, and the crew splits what is left
A new deckhand gets the smallest share on the boat. A bad season means a small check, and there is no minimum promised. A good season on a well run boat can pay more in three months than most jobs pay in a year.
Owning the permit and the boat
Owners keep the vessel's share as well as their own
Alaska limits how many people may fish each of its fisheries. You buy a limited entry permit from someone who already holds one, and for the better salmon and crab fisheries that costs tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes far more, before you have bought a boat.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
There is no tuition at either end, because nobody hires deckhands on paper qualifications. Both figures are rain gear, boots, gloves and a knife at $300 to $800, which you will replace, plus a state crew licence that costs a yearly fee well under a few hundred dollars. What these numbers hide is the travel: getting yourself to a port in Alaska can run several hundred dollars that is not counted here, and the real risk is a whole season that lands nothing.
You do not take on student debt to do this. What you risk is the travel money, and a whole season that lands nothing.
Food and a bunk are on the boat
While you are fishing you are not paying rent or buying groceries, so the check comes home whole.
No tuition, no debt
You learn by doing it, and you are paid from the first trip.
Short seasons
Some fisheries pack the year's work into a few intense months and leave the rest open.
What you usually do not get
Health insurance, a pension and paid sick days are rare. Most crew buy their own coverage or go without.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no school for this. You get to a fishing port and you ask.
High school diploma or the GED (General Educational Development) test
Grade 12
Helpful for the rest of your life, but almost no skipper will ask to see it.
Buy a state crew license
Same day
Most fishing states sell a crewmember license over the counter or online for a small fee. You need it before you step on board.
Walk the docks
Days to weeks
Skippers hire in person, a week or two before the season opens. Being early, sober and willing to work beats every resume.
Your first season as a greenhorn
One season
Baiting, coiling, picking fish, cleaning. You learn whether your body and your stomach can take it.
Become crew worth keeping
2 to 5 years
After two or three seasons you run gear, fix what breaks and get a bigger share. Some go on to mate, engineer or skipper.
Shop and small engine repair
Things break at sea and nobody is coming to fix them.
Biology
You will be identifying species and handling catch to legal size limits.
Math
Shares, fuel, ice and price per pound are your paycheck.
Physical education
The work is lifting, pulling and standing for 16 hours.
Each state licenses fishing inside its own waters, and further out the federal government does it. NOAA Fisheries (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) runs the permits and the rules for federal waters through eight regional management councils, which set seasons, quotas and gear limits fishery by fishery. As crew you mostly need a cheap state crewmember license. The expensive permits belong to the boat or the owner. If you want to run a larger vessel yourself, the United States Coast Guard issues the mariner credential you need to be in charge of it.
Ports where crews get hired every year.
Alaska
Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Naknek and Cordova. The biggest seasonal hiring in the country.
Massachusetts
New Bedford and Gloucester, scallops and groundfish.
Oregon and Washington
Astoria and Westport, crab, tuna and salmon.
Gulf Coast
Shrimp and reef fish out of Texas, Louisiana and Florida ports.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Merchant mariner credential
Issued by the United States Coast Guard. You need one to be licensed in charge of a bigger vessel, and it turns you from crew into an officer.
Marine diesel and hydraulics
A crew member who can fix the engine or the deck winch at sea is worth more than one who cannot.
Welding
Steel boats need repairs constantly and yards charge a fortune for it.
Refrigeration
Boats that chill or freeze their catch onboard sell it for more, and somebody has to keep the system running.
First aid and CPR at sea
Help can be a day away. Crews carry someone who has been trained.
A clean record and a valid passport
Some boats fish waters that require border paperwork, and drug testing is normal.
A reputation
This industry runs on word of mouth in small ports. One season of showing up sober gets you the next berth.
Winter work lined up
Most fisheries do not run year round. Welders, mechanics and carpenters fish in summer and work on land in winter.
Honest self knowledge about seasickness
Most people adjust in a few days. A few never do, and there is no shame in finding out cheaply.
If no skipper will take you the first year, the shore plants hire. Processing crews in Alaska take on thousands of seasonal workers to head, gut, freeze and box what the boats bring in, with a bunk and meals included. The pay is hourly, the hours are brutal and the work is repetitive, but you are in the port, you learn the fishery, and you meet the skippers. Plenty of deckhands got their first berth by working a season in a plant first.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
There is no clock. You fish when the gear is in the water, which can mean 18 hours on deck and four in your bunk, then up again. You set and haul gear, sort and ice the catch, clear jams, and fix whatever broke. Meals are eaten standing up. The weather decides everything: a bad forecast means running for shelter, a good one means nobody sleeps because you are making money. When the hold is full you steam to town, offload, ice up and go back out.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Federal safety agencies put commercial fishing near the top of the fatal injury list year after year. Drowning, falls overboard and vessel disasters are the reasons. Boats that run safety drills and require float coats on deck have far better records, and it is fair to ask a skipper about that before you sign on.
The federal career database counts only about 21,900 fishing and hunting workers nationwide and expects the number to fall slightly by 2034. Quotas, fuel prices and consolidation mean fewer boats catching the same fish.
Alaska caps the number of people allowed to fish each commercial fishery. The Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission issues limited entry permits, and the only way to get one is to buy it from a current holder. That is why crew work is the realistic way in.
Trained fishery observers ride along on many vessels to record what comes up in the net, including species nobody meant to catch. Their data sets the quotas everyone fishes under the following year.
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.