Occupation
Commercial fisher
Commercial fishers catch fish and shellfish at sea or on inland waters, working gear such as nets, traps, lines, or dredges from a vessel. It is physically demanding, weather-dependent work carried out in long shifts far from shore, and it is regulated by licences, quotas, gear rules, and vessel safety requirements. Crew live and work together for the duration of a trip.
Also known as: Fish harvester · Deckhand · Fishing vessel crew · Fisher
Occupation content
Part of Agriculture, animals and environment
What the work involves
- Prepare the vessel, gear, ice, and provisions before a trip and check safety equipment.
- Set, tow, haul, and clear nets, traps, or lines and clear snags and gear damage.
- Sort, grade, gut, and ice the catch and stow it correctly in the hold.
- Stand navigational and engine-room watches and monitor weather and sea conditions.
- Record catch, effort, and location data required by the fisheries authority.
- Clean, repair, and maintain gear, deck machinery, and the vessel between trips.
How people commonly enter
- Direct entry as a deckhand, learning the gear and the grounds on the job.
- Mandatory basic safety training such as sea survival, firefighting, and first aid before or on joining a vessel.
- A college certificate or diploma in fisheries, nautical science, or marine operations.
- Progression to skipper through sea time plus certificates of competency from the maritime authority.
Typical training: Short course or on-the-job training
Licensing: Regulated in most jurisdictions — confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.
Typical work context
Outdoors · Physically active · Shift work · Team based · High responsibility · Involves travel
Related interests
Realistic (hands-on) · Enterprising (leading)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
- Safety judgment
- Situational judgment
- Reaction-time exercises
- Map and route reasoning
- Mechanical comprehension
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Agriculture, animals and environment.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- US BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations · United States
Link checked
- Canada Job Bank — Career planning and occupation search (Fish harvester) · Canada
Link checked
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Agriculture, animals and environment in Canada, not a figure for Commercial fisher. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Agriculture, animals and environment family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: education pathways
Some roles in Agriculture, animals and environment may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Commercial fisher”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)