Commercial Fisher (Deckhand)
🎣Catches fish and crab at sea on fishing vessels: sets and hauls nets and pots, processes the catch on board, spends weeks at sea in cold waters.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $60.5k a year on average · -4.2% jobs by 2035 · 3,300 openings a year
Fishing and hunting workers — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £30.1k median a year · 13,000 jobs
Agricultural and fishing trades n.e.c. — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
Sonar and AI help find shoals and some processing is automated; heavy deck work in a storm is still done by people.
Who it suits
Interests: 🏕️ Outdoor work, expeditions, ✈️ Transport, flying, sea, 🔧 Making things by hand, 🌋 Planet: ocean, climate, geology.
Key strengths: strength and stamina, manual dexterity.
Where to study
- Course Basic sea safety training (Seafish in the UK, STCW) and a medical
- Vocational Fisheries programme at upper-secondary or college level (e.g. Norway)
- Academy Maritime college for skipper and mate certificates
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): PE, Geography, Maths.
🧗 Basic sea safety training (Seafish in the UK, STCW) and a medical, then deckhand; with sea time and maritime college you can become skipper. Main fleets: Norway, Iceland, Scotland, Alaska.
Things to know
⚠️ Real danger to life🌊 Working on or under water🏔️ Long stints far from home🛢️ Dirt, noise, smells
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