Did You Know? "The swift rise of aquaculture as a major supplier of protein to the world is a remarkable story of rapid domestication of marine and freshwater animals. Just a few years ago, the world produced more tonnage of farmed fish than it did beef. With billions of farmed fish now in production systems, the lives fish lead and their welfare status have come under increasing scrutiny. Research has revealed that half of the world’s most farmed marine fish have a deformity that compromises one of their primary senses: hearing. Hard of hearing Salmon farming has been around since the 1970s, so it’s surprising to find a significant, widespread deformity today. Fish ear bones, or “otoliths”, are a cornerstone of fisheries science used to age wild fish and understand their movements in the environment. In farmed fish, age and origin are always known, so there has been no reason to look in depth at otoliths. But we stumbled across a remarkable observation: farmed salmon seemed to have very high rates of otolith deformity. The deformity occurs when the typical “aragonite” form of calcium carbonate in the otolith is replaced with a different crystal form, called “vaterite”. Otoliths with vaterite are larger, lighter and more brittle, and the way they perform within the ear changes. Through a series of experiments and a model of fish hearing, we discovered that the vaterite deformity occurs at an early age. This happens most often when fish are in a hatchery, and its effects on hearing become increasingly more severe as the fish age. Fish afflicted with this deformity can lose up to 50% of their hearing sensitivity right across their hearing range. More than a billion farmed salmon are harvested every year. To test if vaterite was a global phenomenon, we sampled salmon from the world’s major producers: Norway; Canada; Scotland; Chile; and Australia. Regardless of origin, the vaterite deformity was common. Read more to know why it matters! (Source: The Conversation)

 

 

 

Hatchery managers oversee the whole operation for the breeding and rearing of marine or freshwater animals. Hatchery Managers over see all aspects of an aquaculture hatchery including the management of personnel, fish, infrastructure and equipment. They are responsible for feeding and health routines, water quality, waste management, managing people and onsite safety, setting budgets and production targets. The primary role of the Hatchery Manager is to manage all technical, administrative and financial aspects of the hatchery operation including vehicle and vessel fleet and facilities maintenance.

A fish hatchery manager supervises activities related to hatchery management and fish production, specifically at fish farms and fish hatcheries. The purpose of this role is to maximize production and profit margins through smooth operation and business management.

 

 

ANZSCO ID: 121111
   
Alternative names: Aquaculture Hatchery Manager, Hatchery Manager (Fish), Aquaculture Farm Manager,

Specialisations: Different types of fish eg. Giant Grouper:

 

Egg to Plate

Giant Grouper is protected in Australia – and that’s the way it should be. Years of overfishing throughout the world has reduced the breeding population forcing the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) to list the species as vulnerable. Every few years, The Company One, collects a limited number of wild specimens from North Queensland waters and carefully transports them back to the breeding facility in Cairns where they are introduced as broodstock. What happens next is a delicate process:
	Once spawned from the broodstock, the eggs float to the top of the tank and are collected, sorted for quality, and taken to the hatchery. Twenty-four hours later the little grouper’s hatch as larvae.
	They remain in the larval stage for approximately 40 days and are fed a diet of mainly live food to match to their nutritional requirements before being weaned onto formulated diets as they transition to become fingerlings.
	The fingerlings are then graded to minimise cannibalism and transferred to the nursery where they stay for approximately two to four weeks depending on the sizing requirements of the farms.
	Finally, the young fish are packed and transported internationally and domestically to grow-out facilities where they mature to market size.

(Source: The Company One)

 

Knowledge, skills and attributes

Hatchery Managers understand all facets of the breeding and growing enterprise and use their expertise and experience to manage a team of nursery technicians and assistants for successful growing operations.

Interested in science and research, likes managing people and work teams, enjoys working physically, has a commitment to the health and welfare of people and animals.

 

 

Mackay Area Fish Stocking Association hatchery manager Kieron Galletly with a young sooty grunter - fish.
Picture: Tony Martin
(Source: The Courier Mail)

 

Duties and Tasks

Working in an office and outdoors, hatchery managers work to ensure the farming enterprise is running smoothly with tasks such as:

• Setting and achieving growth targets

• Assess and execute administrative policies, hatchery operation standards and the regular maintenance of facilities on the premises.

• Ensure the spawning and trapping of different extensive and intensive culture of warm and cool fish species, incubating the eggs, and applying other fish culture methods.

• Keep up to date with industry trends such as advanced techniques and treatments for collecting, fertilizing and incubating fish spawn.

• Collaborate with other fishery professionals such as fish management staff and internal partners to collect statistics pertaining to food, rearing and habitat needs.

• Closely monitor aspects such as fish health and nutrition, aquatic vegetation and water quality, to improve productivity efficiency.

• Using computer software to monitor breeding and rearing systems

• Monitoring water quality

• Monitoring animal health and nutrition

• Data collection and writing reports

• Managing site Workplace, Health, and Safety

• Liaising with nursery employees and running meetings

• Hiring and onboarding new employees

• Working with researchers

Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall stripping eggs under the watchful eye of hatchery manager Peter Selby as part of Ebor Trout Hatchery's breeding program.
(Source: The Land)

 

 

Working conditions

During a typical work day, you will start bright and early to take a look at fish and beds to assess diseases as well as track the growth rate of fish and their quality. As someone overseeing all operations at the hatchery, you will frequently record the quantity and types of fish or shellfish spawned, reared, harvested and eventually sold. Monitoring the facility and fish production related responsibilities will require you to initiate the writing of development projects, consolidating and tracking budgets, purchasing supplies to assist with fish rearing and spawning activities.

You will also specify duties for workers as per a daily or weekly schedule, which includes harvesting shellfish beds, spawning, feeding and transferring fish. Coordinating with other managers and making key decisions plays a significant part of most days, whether it is figuring out best times for techniques to use for cultivating, feeding and harvesting fish as well as shellfish.

As a fish hatchery manager, you will work for more than 40 hours per week, and be mostly outdoors in varied weather conditions. Depending on the size of the facilities, you will be required to travel in between facilities that the role oversees. The job is often physically demanding depending on production demands, and requires you to be near water, inside commercial tanks and contaminants. You may also have to complete administrative tasks in a standard environmentally controlled office environment.

Tools and technologies
  

(Source: Go Smart Farming)

• Environmental monitoring: Demonstrating the environmental sustainability of the industry through certification programs has served as a catalyst for some of the innovations that are transforming aquaculture. Sediment quality conditions and the robustness and abundance of marine life and macro-invertebrates beneath marine finfish cage aquaculture sites are indicators of a fish farm’s impact on the environment.
  
  The recent development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies is moving the industry toward more refined, efficient and effective monitoring. NGS technologies offer the possibility to use environmental DNA (eDNA) or RNA to explore benthic diversity. These methods have cut the benthic monitoring costs incurred by fish farmers and has made monitoring quicker and more accurate.

• Genomic selection: Breeding programs for fish and shellfish are aimed at increasing the profitability and sustainability of aquaculture. New hatchery technologies are being developed to enhance broodstock quality that can produce specific pathogen-free and fast-growing seed stock. The recent development of low-cost genomic tools is proving to be a game-changer for small hatcheries.

• Computer vision: Image recognition devices are proving to be a friend to breeding and genetics firms – particularly in phenotyping processes for genomic selection.
  
  Digital image analysis and computer vision systems can do the trick and provide more accurate data collection. These data will enable genetic researchers to find a relationship between genetic components and the final phenotype in a population – allowing them to select genetically superior animals, in whatever trait is of importance.
  
  The technology monitors factors as growth, sea lice, disease, lesions and others aspects that affect the health and welfare of the individual fish.
  
  
  
  Technologies used in "Intelligent Fish Farm"
  (Source: Springer Link)
  

• Sensors: Innovation in sensing technologies, coupled with computer vision systems, is changing the way farms are being managed. Water quality monitoring in land-based fish farms is one application. When used in conjunction with an online software tool for data management and analysis, the technology could spell the difference between life and death – literally.
  
  Osmobot is a new kind of sensor that provides 24-hour monitoring of water quality in land-based aquaculture farms. Instead of probes, the system is built around sensor cartridges. When the cartridge interacts with the water in a tank or pond, the photochemical sensors attached to the cartridge will fluoresce or change color as an indicator of water condition. A camera inside the sensor then takes an image of the cartridge, measures and translates them into a reading. The data is uploaded into an online software tool and can be viewed by a farm operator from their smart phone. It allows operators to have a full view of the health of the species in the farm, enabling them to be proactive and take action before a situation becomes critical.
  

• Farm management with IoT: Many new industry innovations in recent years are based on the Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Put plainly, IoT is a network of electronic devices – personal gadgets, wearable devices, home appliances, office machines or industrial machinery and equipment – that are connected to the Internet. This Internet connectivity creates a huge network of devices that communicate with each other and with people.
  
  In the aquaculture industry, imagine an interconnected network of devices – sensors, computers, tanks, grading equipment, fish counters, pumps, etc. – within a state-of-the-art fish farm, communicating with each other, sending and uploading critical data to a central command station, providing the operator a complete view of the entire facility. This is the potential for IoT in fish farming.

• Big data: As more farms go online, more and more devices are spewing out vast amounts of data that are all indicators of the overall health of the facility and the species that live in them. Industry innovators believe big data will become an important component for industry growth and even influence production yields. Predictive analytics, machine learning or artificial intelligence systems all require vast amounts of data to be able to process output and produce key leading indicators for the industry: production forecasting, disease control and management, feed management, environmental controls, energy efficiency, etc.

 

Education and training/entrance requirements

Bachelor of Marine Science or SFI50119 Diploma of Aquaculture
A degree or diploma in aquaculture, fisheries, or a related field is often required. Experience in managing fish nurseries or hatcheries is important

Employment Opportunities

Fish hatchery managers often move from small to large scale operations, while others start their own aquaculture business. Employment opportunities for those in this sector are expected to rise due increasing concerns about the world’s depleting natural resources, including fish species. The number of fish hatcheries and marine farms are expected to rise in number, especially those growing trout, salmon, barramundi and prawns. This profession will also supplement the increasing demand for seafood.

Fish hatchery managers work at fisheries that are vertically integrated or operations that supply to smaller hatcheries or large seafood companies. Typically, recruiters are looking for candidates that have previous leadership experience in coordination or management of more than two people, as well as a solid foundation in fish culture, i.e. fish production, health, history and aquaculture diseases. You will be offered a competitive benefits package as a full-time employee in this area, which will include medical insurance, annual leave, paid holidays and retirement benefits.

 

 

 

 

Aquaculture Workers perform routine tasks in breeding and raising fish and other aquatic stock. Fish farm workers help to breed and rear fish in ponds, tanks, cages or nets in the water. Most fish such as salmon, trout or shellfish are farmed for food, but some are bred for angling or for ornamental ponds.

ANZSCO ID: 8411

Alternative names: Aquaculture Technician, Aquaculture Operator, Fish Farm Worker, Fish Husbandry Worker, Fish Farm Hand, Fish Farm Technician,

Knowledge, skills and attributes

• Previous work experience, on a farm or working with animals, is useful.

• You may need a full, clean driving licence.

• You must be fit enough to do physical work.

• You should be able to swim.

Murray Cod Australia's fish growing ponds near Griffith, NSW
(Source: Farm Online)

Duties and Tasks

• feeding fish by hand or operating automatic feeding systems

• grading fish by size, moving them to bigger tanks or cages and monitoring their growth

• assisting with farm layout and constructing nets, long-lines and cages

• checking and looking after equipment and fish housing

• checking fish for disease, preventing and treating infection

• draining and cleaning tanks, filters and nets

• repairing tanks or cages

• operating pumps and other equipment

• testing and checking on water quality

• removing dead and dying fish

• getting fish ready for sale, gutting them and packing them in ice for transport

• maintaining buildings and equipment, involving basic joinery, plumbing and electrical work.

• operating lifting equipment such as forklifts and small cranes

• harvesting fish, and sorting and packing for transportation

• restocking pens, pools, tanks, ponds, rivers and dams with juvenile fish

• collecting and recording growth, production and water quality data

(Source: Author's Photo)

 

Working conditions

In most cases, you would have to live in a rural or remote area, close to water. In 'Open Sea' fish farming, workers live on residential barges at fish farms, on a shift work basis.

  
Working hours can be unsocial, including evenings and weekends, and you may have to work alone at times. You would normally have a 40-hour week.
You would work outdoors in all weathers and it will often be wet and cold. You might have to do heavy lifting. You may have to enter water, in pools, the sea or dams, to check fish and carry out maintenance. You may need to work from a boat. You would need to be able to cope with the sight of blood, and you would wear protective clothing.

Most fish farm hands are expected to work overtime, particularly in the summer months.

 

Education and training/entrance requirements

You can work as an Aquaculture Worker without formal qualifications, however, they may be useful. A course in aquaculture might be helpful.

 

 

Working in some of the most beautiful areas of Australia and often thought of as the farming elite, the aquaculture diver plays an integral role in the sustainability and success of an aquaculture farm.

Unlike recreational diving, aquaculture diving requires, passion and commitment to working in all weather conditions and water temperatures, with often limited visibility and a close working relationship with
marine life.

A fisheries diver works in hatcheries and assists with the building and maintenance of boats, cages, nets and other equipment. They inspect, repair and clean housings, keep an eye on the health of fish,
remove dead fish, repel or kill predators and report observations to the supervisor.
  
Aquaculture diving is undertaken to support the production of farmed marine species for a global market. Aquaculture diving involves a wide range of tasks performed in and around sea farms. In Australia, marine finfish farming is dominated by atlantic salmon in Tasmania and southern bluefin tuna in South Australia.

The Tasmanian salmon (and related species) farming industry currently comprises fourteen commercial operations including hatcheries, nine of which operate seafarms as part of their operations. The majority of Tasmania atlantic salmon farms are located in the South East in the Huon River, Port Esperance and D’Entrecasteaux Channel, and Tasman Peninsula areas. Other farms are located in Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast, and in the Tamar estuary on the North Coast.

ANZSCO ID: 399911

Alternative names: Aquaculture diver

Knowledge, skills and attributes      

An aquaculture diver is responsible for the security and maintenance of fish stock. This involves monitoring the stock for disease, death or unusual behaviour and ensuring there are no losses of stock due to damaged nets. Maintaining the mooring systems in a good state of repair is also essential for preventing the loss of stock.

Planning, working efficiently and reporting observations are all necessary to get the job done effectively. Working as part of a small team, it is important to gain a close working relationship with colleagues in order to meet deadlines. The health of the fish, and other work crews, depends on your ability to carry out duties required on a daily basis.

Personal safety and safety of the crew is extremely important. Aquaculture diving can be dangerous work especially in high risk weather conditions or in low visibility. For these reasons, aquaculture divers need to be able to remain calm in various underwater situations and to stay fit and healthy and to remain alert while on the job.

Diver entering Huon Aquaculture salmon pen
(Source: ABC News)

Duties and Tasks

Through the use of Aquaculture divers, management remain informed of the activity and condition of their marine farm leases that can not be observed from the surface. This includes:

• The security of their nets by the underwater inspection of moorings, weights, tightness of nets, level of exterior coating including sea weed and regular inspections for holes;

• Condition of sea bottom, through regular inspection of sea bottom for any build up of waste or feed matter and equipment retrieval;

• Health management through the retrieval of non survivors within the sea cages to ensure health of survivors and to identify any areas of concern; and

• Operational support through operational diving for pre and post inspection following operational processes, such as bathing or towing.

Day-to-day duties of salmon farm divers include net cleaning of salmon pens, net inspections, mortality retrievals, mooring checks, recovery, and net scoring.

Tuna farms are located at Port Lincoln in South Australia. Over the past decade the farmed sector has grown to the point where around 98 per cent of the Australian southern bluefin tuna quota is now farmed.

Experienced aquaculture divers support the wild catch operations that are performed from trawlers in the open sea. Tuna are harvested from the wild between December and March using purse seine nets, they are then transferred to floating cages, which are slowly towed back to the farm, the fish are then transferred to growout sea cages and fattened up for the Japanese sashimi market. From their beginnings in the early 1990s, tuna farms have made extensive use of divers. Divers are used at every phase of the operation from capture through to harvest. Aquaculture divers dive to depths of approximately 18 metres generally tend the fish and look after the nets.

Tasks performed on the job:

• Fish health inspections;

• Net inspection and repair;

• Net cleaning;

• Mooring (which includes visual inspections, installation and removal of mooring systems, weighting system on fish nets, underwater cameras, deployment of transaction nets, sea bed samples and transect video footage);

• Mortality collection;

• Retrieval of lost equipment.

Working conditions

Working as an onshore diver you have the privilege of going home each day and not living out at sea! Aquaculture diving offers an interesting and healthy lifestyle. You can enjoy being out on the water with spectacular views like the Houn, Channel, Tasman or the beautiful Harbor in Strahan. It may also provide the opportunity for travel if you enjoy changing sceneries.

Predominantly working in a small team and diving on surface supply there is some call for scuba diving as well. As the demand for aquaculture divers is often quite high, it is a great way of gaining dive time and logged dives — being able to undertake all the diving you would like to do. It is a useful stepping stone to careers in the dive field or aquaculture management.

Tools and technologies

Examples of equipment used:

• Searchlines;

• Underwater scooters;

• Net needles;

• High pressure water jets or trash pump vacuums;

• Sample cores;

• Air lifts.

• All dive equipment used conforms to AS 2299 standards. Divers use SSBA systems with AGA facemasks and comms.

Education and training/entrance requirements

The emphasis of the ADAS Aquaculture SSBA Diver to 30m course is to train recreational scuba divers to work safely and effectively as members of a diving team, on surface supply using modern full-face masks and with effective communications, to successfully achieve a variety of light work tasks required by seafood divers. An aquaculture diver requires a minimum Certificate 3 in Aquaculture Diving which conforms to the AS2299 standards, a workplace first aid certificate and an oxygen resuscitation certificate.

Courses are generally of 4 weeks’ duration (usually 20 days over a 26-day period).

Trainees are assessed on at least two occasions on the preparation of an effective risk assessment. All dives are to be conducted as no decompression dives and to include at least:

• simulated decompression dives using lazy shot and stage;

• sufficient use of demand full helmet and band masks to ensure competency;

• at least 6 boat dives;

• at least 6 shore dives;

• at least one night dive;

• at least one dive to deeper than 28m;

• at least one zero visibility dive (minimum of 20 mins bottom time);

• the use of two types of full-face masks which comply with the requirements of AS/NZS 2299.1 (including Aga) with voice communications;

• standby diver training and assessment as per the ADAS assessment pro forma;

• bottom searches (at least three of jackstay, grid mesh, snag line, semi-circular, parallel and circular); and one chamber dive to 50 metres.

Employment Opportunities

Aquaculture diving has the highest rate of dive time for any dive field; you will gain experience and log books very quickly. As you dive on a regular basis you can obtain up to 700 logged dives a year and it is also possible to supervise over 2000 dives a year which can be quite appealing to other dive industries having had that amount of experience. This is key to working in another dive field, such as oil rigs and construction. Also, boating tickets can help get you into shipping or commercial fishing.

Once knowledge is gained in the field, it is possible to progress into management roles in the aquaculture industry.

Some companies (e.g.Tassal) promote skills building by providing access to professional development courses such as boating, engineering, and dive supervising.

Aquaculture pens
(Source: was at Economic Students)

 

Abalone diver – a person, who dives for abalone, harvests abalone or recovers abalone. The abalone is a gastropod mollusc belonging to the Family Haliotidae. In NSW, blacklip abalone, Haliotis rubra, forms the basis of the fishery. This species also occurs in the other southern states of Australia. Abalone occur in relatively shallow coastal waters and are typically collected by divers using either snorkel, surface-supplied air or scuba.

ANZSCO ID: 399911

Alternative names: Snorkel harvester, Shellfish Harvester,

Knowledge, skills and attributes   

You must have excellent swimming ability, calmness under pressure, and good levels of concentration under demanding physical conditions. As well as:

• able to cope with the physical demands of the job

• able to pass a strict medical examination

• responsible and safety-conscious

• able to work as part of a team

• able to solve mathematical problems

 

      
Greenlip Abalone - WA
(Source: AICD)

Duties and Tasks

• Gathers or harvests marine life -  abalone - from sea bottom, wearing wet suit and scuba gear, or diving suit with air line extending to surface

• Climbs overboard or is lowered into water from boat by lifeline

• Pries abalone from rocks, using bar

• Places catch in bag or basket and tugs on line to have catch pulled to boat, or surfaces and empties catch on boat or in container.

• Signals other workers to extend or retract air lines

• May monitor air lines and operate air compressor as alternating member of diving crew.

Records

• Every diver shall keep a log or log book, which shall be a record of all dives, depths and times of dives

• These shall be entered into the log or logbook at the completion of each working day along with a brief summary of any incidents and accidents

• Each entry should be signed by the diver and countersigned by the diving supervisor, with verification by a stamp

• This log or a copy of the log should be presented at each medical examination and be available on site

• A record of all medical examinations should be contained in the same logbook

• The logbook may be bound or loose-leaf, however in all cases each page shall be numbered consecutively

• Fishing catch records, together with the above details may be used as the diver’s record provided a separate copy has been made and kept appropriately.

 

Maintenance record – where tests are carried out; e.g. air purity, records of test results, together with identification of the compressor, shall be maintained for the life of the compressor and kept for a minimum of five years.

 

Working conditions

Dive control position – a single designated position, which is adjacent to where the diver enters the water and from which a diving supervisor can monitor and supervise all systems and functions, which relate to life support and the safety of the diver in the water.

At all times whilst a diver is in the water or under pressure, there shall be present a supervisor.

A supervisor shall be –
  
(a) A trained, experienced person who has experience or knowledge of the diving techniques which may be required to be used and in the use of the equipment and procedures used in the diving operations;
   
(b) Recorded as being the supervisor; and
    
(c) Competent to safely carry out the duties of the supervisor

Standby diver – diver recovery
  
Whenever a diver is underwater, a standby diver shall be present on the surface. The diver shall be medically fit, qualified to dive and dressed to the extent that the diver can enter the water almost immediately to go to the aid of the distressed diver. The standby diver may also perform duties, which do not prejudice the immediate safety of the diver in the water.

Tools and technologies

Divers use self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba), surface-supplied breathing apparatus or underwater work chambers in order to breathe underwater.

Education and training/entrance requirements

The qualifications required to become a diver vary according to the work undertaken. In some circumstances a certificate of occupational diving competency that complies with the Australian Standard AS 2815 - Training and Certification of Occupational Divers may be required, whereas other roles may only require a recreational scuba qualification such as those issued by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).

The Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS) covers occupational divers and recognises four levels of accreditation, depending on the amount of experience and courses completed.

 

The Abalone Rancher
A former wild catch abalone diver develops the world's first abalone sea ranch

Brad Adams the abalone rancher | Sustainable Seafood on Steroids in Australia's pristine southwest
https://youtu.be/D-SD9525pbM?si=QbAuhnv7D9pBpSH8

 

 

Did You Know? The Abalone is an edible marine snail. Tasmania accounts for 25% of the worldwide abalone harvest, with a large majority of species preferring the cooler waters off the coast of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and North America. Abalone is called Paua in New Zealand, Perlemon in South Africa, and in certain parts of Europe Ormer. Australians called them "Sea Ears"! (Source: Divebase)

 

A pearl diver makes a living by harvesting oysters that grow pearls, so the pearls can be collected. Generally, pearl divers work in farms where oysters are specifically bred in order to create pearls, which are then sold to generate profit. Some pearl divers also hunt oysters in the wild, which produce more valuable pearls, while others may make their living by training tourists to dive and collect oysters themselves.

A pearl necklace seems a lot more precious when you realize that each pearl along the string is the fruit of a risky mission undertaken by a Pearl Diver. Sure, some pearls come from oyster breeding farms, but the most rare and natural of the starry white gems are found in the depths of the sea.

Unlike a Scuba Diver who uses a complicated breathing apparatus to make dives, a Pearl Diver free-dives down into the salty water with a basket or bag to collect oysters. That means that, if you’re a Pearl Diver, you hold your breath – often with the help of a nose plug – during each dive, like a marine explorer unhindered by fancy (and heavy) equipment.

You know the undersea terrain like the back of your hand – a Fisherman in the real sense of the word. You scrape off the best oysters before you run out of time (and breath), after which you surface. Each time you pop back to the shore, your goal is to have collected at least one pearl.

ANZSCO ID: 399911


Knowledge, skills and attributes       

• 18 months Head Diver experience in the pearling industry

• Two years pearling diving experience

• Exemption 38 or coxswains qualifications including 2 years’ experience driving a commercial boat

• High level of computer literacy an advantage

• Highly demonstrated oral and written communication skills

• Emergency First Responder including operation of a defibrillator

• Rescue Diver (or above) accreditation or ADAS 1 & 2 (desirable but not essential)

• Current Dive Medical to AS/NZS 2299.1:2007 standards done by SPUMS doctor with a chest bone x ray report

• Extensive experience in living and working in a remote location

• Pearl Divers and Pearl Masters Licence (Department of Fisheries)

• Pearl Producers Association Certificate (PPA)

• Must be mentally and physically fit

• Must be self motivated and be able to work as a team leader and be part of a team

• Excellent time management and self organisation skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills

• Ability to obtain MSIC card
     

Diving for Pearls
(Source: ADAS)

Duties and Tasks

Record Keeping
Maintain records for company and/or legal use including:

• Dive logs

• Training and assessment

• Incident reports

• Bottom farm maps including accurate figures

• Code of Practice updates

• Any shell on the bottom and husbandry required

• GPS co-ordinates

• Work schedules

• Equipment servicing

• Diving qualifications and licenses

• Accurately report stock figures and observations

• Any changes to farm infrastructure

• Shell health and mortality
  

Working conditions

It’s a risk every time you dive into the water, fearing sharks and the bends, but if you’ve ever snorkeled in the clear blue of the tropics, you know just how beautiful it can be to spend all day in the glimmering water.

 

Tools and technologies

Medical Oxygen equipment; gas bottles; dinghies including outboards; compressors; diving equipment

Education and training/entrance requirements

On the Job training as well as Professional Diver's qualifications: 

The qualifications required to become a diver vary according to the work undertaken. In some circumstances a certificate of occupational diving competency that complies with the Australian Standard AS 2815 - Training and Certification of Occupational Divers may be required, whereas other roles may only require a recreational scuba qualification such as those issued by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).

The Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS) covers occupational divers and recognises four levels of accreditation, depending on the amount of experience and courses completed.

Commercial diving qualifications are available through short courses, which are provided by training establishments accredited by the Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS). These courses can provide the foundation for progressing to higher academic courses within Australia. Costs, duration and entry requirements vary.

All divers should be highly skilled in scuba diving, swimming and hold a current Provide First Aid Certificate. They must also have a certificate of medical fitness to dive, issued by a doctor trained and experienced in underwater medicine. Divers must be at least 18 years of age to apply for a commercial divers licence.

 

Did You Know? Ama (海女, "sea women") are Japanese divers, famous for collecting pearls. They are also known as uminchu (in Okinawan) or kaito (in the Izu Peninsula). The vast majority of ama are women. (Source: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

Related Jobs or Working with these Jobs

Biosecurity Officer	Crane Operator	Diver	Fisher
Fisheries Officer	Marine Biologist

 

 

Job Cluster - Diving

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials sourced from
Jobs & Skills WA [Aquaculture Farmer; ];
NSW DPI [Abalone - PDF;]
Career Planner [Fisher Diving; Aquaculture Manager; Fish Hatchery Manager;  ]
ADAS [Aquaculture;]
Plan It Plus [Fish farm workers; ]
Prospects UK [Fish Farm Manager; ]
Career Match [Pearl Diver;]
Career Trend [Pearl Diver; ]
Clipper Pearls [Pearl Diver; ]
AG Careers [Aquaculture Hatchery Manager; ]
Jobs WA [Hatchery Manager - PDF;]
Learn [Fish Hatchery Manager; ]
Career Harvest [Fish Hatchery Manager; ]
Online Degree [Fish Hatchery Manager; ]
Hatchery International [Digital Disruption;]
Seafood Careers [Hatchery Manager; Snorkel Harvester; Grow Out Manager;  ]
 Your Career [Aquaculture Farmer; Aquaculture Worker; ]