Career profile Fisherman

Table of Contents

• What does a Fisherman do?
• What is a typical salary for a Fisherman?
• What personality traits are common among Fishermen?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Fishermen need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Fisherman do?

Fishermen hunt, trap, catch, or gather wild animals or aquatic animals and plants.

In addition, Fishermen

• may use nets, traps, or other equipment,
• may haul catch onto ship or other vessel.

What kind of tasks does a Fisherman perform regularly?

Fishermen are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Patrol trap lines or nets to inspect settings, remove catch, and reset or relocate traps.
• Obtain permission from landowners to hunt or trap on their land.
• Travel on foot, by vehicle, or by equipment such as boats, snowmobiles, helicopters, snowshoes, or skis to reach hunting areas.
• Steer vessels and operate navigational instruments.
• Skin quarry, using knives, and stretch pelts on frames to be cured.
• Maintain and repair trapping equipment.
• Maintain engines, fishing gear, and other on-board equipment and perform minor repairs.
• Put fishing equipment into the water and anchor or tow equipment, according to the fishing method used.
• Scrape fat, blubber, or flesh from skin sides of pelts with knives or hand scrapers.
• Locate fish, using fish-finding equipment.
• Sort, pack, and store catch in holds with salt and ice.
• Remove catches from fishing equipment and measure them to ensure compliance with legal size.
• Obtain required approvals for using poisons or traps, and notify persons in areas where traps and poison are set.
• Track animals by checking for signs such as droppings or destruction of vegetation.
• Compute positions and plot courses on charts to navigate vessels, using instruments such as compasses, sextants, and charts.
• Select, bait, and set traps, and lay poison along trails, according to species, size, habits, and environs of birds or animals and reasons for trapping them.
• Attach nets, slings, hooks, blades, or lifting devices to cables, booms, hoists, or dredges.
• Participate in animal damage control, wildlife management, disease control, and research activities.
• Transport fish to processing plants or to buyers.
• Interpret weather and vessel conditions to determine appropriate responses.
• Release quarry from traps or nets and transfer to cages.
• Kill or stun trapped quarry, using clubs, poisons, guns, or drowning methods.
• Wash decks, conveyors, knives, and other equipment, using brushes, detergents, and water.
• Wash and sort pelts according to species, color, and quality.
• Connect accessories such as floats, weights, flags, lights, or markers to nets, lines, or traps.
• Teach or guide individuals or groups unfamiliar with specific hunting methods or types of prey.
• Load and unload vessel equipment and supplies, by hand or using hoisting equipment.

The above responsibilities are specific to Fishermen. More generally, Fishermen are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Fisherman salary?

What personality traits are common among Fishermen?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Fisherman are usually higher in their Realistic interests.

Fishermen typically have very strong Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Fisherman tend to value Independence, Relationships, and Support.

Most importantly, Fishermen moderately value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Second, Fishermen moderately value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Lastly, Fishermen somewhat value Support. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Fishermen must consistently demonstrate qualities such as dependability, initiative, and attention to detail.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Fishermen, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Fishermen need?

Working as a Fisherman may require a high school diploma or GED certificate.

Fishermen need anywhere from a few days to a few months of training. Usually, an experienced worker could show you how to do the job.

Educational degrees among Fishermen

• 21.4% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 41.3% completed high school or secondary school
• 20.3% completed some college coursework
• 5.2% earned a Associate's degree
• 9.9% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 1.7% earned a Master's degree
• 0.3% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Fishermen

Important Abilities needed by Fishermen

Fishermen must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Fishermen need abilities such as arm-hand steadiness, manual dexterity, and multilimb coordination in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Fishermen, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Fishermen

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Fishermen frequently use skills like critical thinking, operation and control, and active listening to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Fishermen, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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