Career Opportunities for Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Undergraduates
COFS Career Center • Marine Mammalogy • UW Center for Career Services • Our Webpage • Other Career Resources on the Web • Bulletin Boards
Fisheries Biologists are employed in three major sectors in the economy: public, private and nonprofit. Jobs in the public sector are found with federal, state, county and municipal agencies. The private sector includes fisheries and seafood companies and environmental consulting firms, among others. Nonprofit agencies are involved in research, public policy and public education. Much of their work is done by volunteers. Paid staff may be involved in field research, grant writing, public relations work and volunteer coordination.
One factor that has expanded the job base in Fisheries in recent years has to do with national policies on endangered species, marine mammals, environmental quality and overharvesting or harvesting of nontarget species. For example, observers are required on all large commercial fishing vessels and much work is done in public agencies regarding the health of fish and shellfish stocks and the environments that support them. Much of the information gathering is done in the field and also might involve becoming familiar with important aspects of public policy and interacting with public groups.
College of Ocean & Fishery Sciences Career Center
(207 Ocean Sciences)
There is a Career Center run through the College of Ocean & Fishery Sciences (COFS). To see this resource, go to http://www.cofs.washington.edu/JLS.
Are You Interested in Studying Marine Mammals?
If you want to study marine mammals, we suggest you check out the following National Marine Mammal Laboratories educational webpage, which has information about careers in the field:
http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov/education/default.htm
UW Center for Career Services (134 Mary Gates Hall)
The University of Washington also has an exceptional career center for current UW Students. This center runs many workshops and career fairs, as well as invites employers onto campus to interview students. They can be reached by calling (206) 543-0535 or looking on their webpage:
http://depts.washington.edu/careers
Our Webpage
The School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences has a webpage has a link to agencies and organizations in the field of fisheries. Many of these websites have information on employment opportunities.
http://fish.washington.edu/fishlinks.html
Career Resources at Other UW Environmental Programs
Via the following PDF link, you can obtain information on other UW departments with resources pertaining to careers in environmental sciences.
http://fish.washington.edu/undergraduates/career_resources.pdf
Other Career Resources on the Web
Bulletin Boards
Student Services maintains bulletin boards, including listings for permanent and temporary positions as well as internship and volunteer opportunities.
Jobs While You Are in School
Most of our students do work, most of them part-time. The ideal number of hours for full-time undergraduates to work is 15–20 hours a week. More hours than that and students can run into trouble academically although each individual should make their own assessment. As a guideline, students should expect to spend 3 hours a week for each credit they are taking. This figure includes both in-class and out-of-class time. This means students enrolled for 15 credits should plan on 45 hours for coursework.
The Student Services Office in the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences maintains a Job Board which includes part-time and temporary opportunities. We receive position announcements from a various agencies and organizations off-campus as well as research opportunities on campus. There are also internship announcements posted, some of which are paid positions. Two local agencies that often send us announcements are NOAA and NMFS.
In addition to posting the opportunities on the Job Board, the Student Services Coordinator also sends announcements over email to students about particularly interesting positions.
