Description
Care for finfish, shellfish, and other aquatic organisms raised for food, stocking, or seed. Duties include feeding and monitoring stock; checking and adjusting water quality; operating ponds, tanks, raceways, recirculating systems, or net pens; cleaning and sanitizing culture and hatchery equipment; grading, counting, and harvesting animals; assisting with spawning, incubation, and larval rearing; administering approved treatments; maintaining nets, pumps, aerators, and feeders; keeping production and health records; and preparing stock for transport or sale.
- • Feed aquatic stock and track feed inventory and feeding response.
- • Operate feeders, boats, forklifts, blowers, and feed systems to distribute feed.
- • Observe stock to detect stress, disease, or injury; sample and weigh to monitor growth.
- • Administer medicated feed or bath treatments, or coordinate care with fish health specialists.
- • Mix feed additives and medications according to labels and SOPs.
- • Monitor and record water quality (temperature, DO, pH, ammonia, salinity) and adjust aeration, flow, or filtration.
- • Inspect, maintain, and repair tanks, raceways, cages, nets, moorings, pumps, aerators, plumbing, and filters.
- • Transfer, grade, and count stock using nets, graders, pumps, or brailers.
- • Clean and sanitize tanks, raceways, hatchery gear, net pens, depuration systems, and tools.
- • Tag, clip, or batch-mark fish for identification and traceability.
- • Set, lift, and handle nets or lines for sampling and harvest; operate brailers and dewatering gear.
- • Adjust stocking densities by splitting or combining cohorts to optimize growth.
- • Order, receive, and store feed, chemicals, seed, and supplies.
- • Perform hatchery tasks: broodstock conditioning, spawning, fertilization, egg incubation, larval rearing, and shellfish spat setting.
- • Sort stock by size and condition prior to transfer, treatment, or harvest.
- • Patrol ponds, tanks, and cage sites by boat or on foot; inspect predator-exclusion and moorings.
- • Maintain accurate records of water quality, feeding, growth, inventory, mortality, treatments, and harvest.
- • Implement biosecurity: disinfect gear and facilities, control access, and manage effluent per regulations.
- • Harvest, purge/depurate shellfish, chill or ice product, and pack stock for live haul or delivery.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
