When people hear of fishermen and fisherwomen they often think of the person operating the boat. In addition to the skipper or captain, there are other fishermen/women on the boat hired by the skipper or captain (or sometimes the fishing company) commonly called deckhands. These people people perform various assigned duties such as setting and hauling gear, cleaning or storing fish, taking turns in the wheelhouse, operating the engines or other machinery or even cooking for the other crew (on larger vessels). Skippers/Captain and dechkands cover mostly all the positions on fishing boats. Larger boats may also have a dedicated engineer, a dedicated cook and, on offshore vessels, deckhand supervisors called bosun or trawlermen.

The following categories describe the various roles on fishing vessels:

• Owner/Operator – Mostly found on smaller, inshore, multi-species boats involved in lobster, groundfish and pelagic fishing.

  Typical duties involve every aspect of running a small business that owns a fishing vessel. These people operate and navigate the boat, plan fishing strategies and locate fish, set and retrieve gear, stow the fish, offload and sell the fish, hire deckhands, do maintenance, keep business and fisheries records, arrange for the vessel’s fishing licence(s) and manage the overall business operations.

  Human Resources Development Canada has an excellent description of the tasks, experience required and other information for owner/operators under their job category Fishing Vessel Skippers and Fishermen/women (#8262). A link to this information is http://www.ns.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/lmi/occsums/occ_sns.asp?which=8262 (Be sure to follow the links on this web page for the part of the province in which you are seeking a position. There is good information regarding average wages, number of usual openings and short-term outlook for jobs on these area-related pages.)

  The Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters has prepared a detailed listing of typical duties for the job category Owner/Operator (Fishing vessels under 65-70 feet). See Owner-Operator less than 65-70 feet.doc (MS-Word).

  It is difficult to know the exact number of people who fish as owner operators. The chart below shows the number of smaller fishing boats licenced by DFO to fish in Nova Scotia in recent years. This size boat is mostly fished by owner/operators on either a full or part-time basis and represents the number of people doing this work.

  
• Skipper – Mostly found on larger fishing boats for which the owner hires a professional captain. The work is similar to the owner/operator category but is focussed strictly on fishing rather the general business duties of a fishing enterprise. The skipper does not usually have an ownership involvement in the boat. Skippers could be hired for smaller boats but are mostly seen on boats 45-65 feet and offshore vessels 65 to over 100 feet in the groundfish, pelagic and some shellfish fisheries.

  Typical duties involve commanding a fishing vessel according to a set fishing plan for specific species; navigate and safely operate the boat; manage all fishing, on-board processing, packing, and stowing of the fish; record all activities for fisheries records and company management; and select/train deckhands.

  HRDC lists excellent information of the various tasks involved in being a Skipper in job category Fishing Masters and Officers #8261. A link to this information is http://www.ns.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/lmi/occsums/occ_sns.asp?which=8261 (Be sure to follow the links on this web page for the part of the province in which you are seeking a position. There is good information regarding average wages, number of usual openings and short-term outlook for jobs on these area-related pages.)

  The job description under fishing vessel owner/operator by the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters contains many similar duties for the Skipper of larger fishing vessels. See Owner-Operator less than 65-70 feet.doc (MS-Word).

  As with Owner/Operators, it is difficult to know exactly how many people are employed as skippers of Fishing Vessel Masters because statistics are not kept on this specific category. The chart below shows the number of vessels licenced for fishing in recent years that are 45 feet to 65 feet and also larger offshore vessels, both of which are common size boats owned by companies that would hire a skipper. There are also quite a few Owner/Operators who own 45 to 65 feet boats and a handful on larger boats.

  
• Deckhand – Found on all fishing boats regardless of size, from open deck smaller (35 feet or less) inshore vessels, to mid-size vessels (35- 65 feet) to offshore vessels (65 – 100+ feet). The number of deckhands increases as the size of the boat increases. It is not uncommon to have only one or two deckhands on small inshore boats but 3 or 4 on mid-size boats and more than 6 on larger fishing vessels. The exact duties may vary according to the boat’s size and fishery, but the style of work is always similar.

  Typical duties are preparing and repairing nets, lines, hooks or other gear; handle, sort, clean, pack and stow fish; clean the fish hold and gear; perform some maintenance tasks; seamanship duties when docking and fishing; and other related duties.

  HRDC information for this job category is described as Fishing Vessel Deckhands #8441. See the link to this information at http://www.ns.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/lmi/occsums/occ_sns.asp?which=8441 (Be sure to follow the links on this web page for the part of the province in which you are seeking a position. There is good information regarding average wages, number of usual openings and short-term outlook for jobs on these area-related pages.)

  The Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters has prepared a detailed listing of typical duties performed by deckhands on two sizes of fishing boats, those under and over 65-70 feet. See Crew Member (deckhand) vessels less than 65-70 feet.doc and Crew Member (deckhand) vessels over 70 feet.doc.

• Bosun/Trawlerman – Strictly on offshore groundfish vessels.

  Typical duties are similar to that of a deckhand but this position also has supervisory responsibility over deckhands and for the operation of the trawl deck. After years of experience the company and the skipper may promote you to this level. The Bosun or Trawlerman works closely with the Skipper to manage the fishing gear and deck operation.

  The HRDC information does not identify a specific category for this position, however, many of the tasks are the same as for the job category Fishing Vessel Deckhands #8441. The link is http://www.ns.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/lmi/occsums/occ_sns.asp?which=8441

  The Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters has prepared a detailed job description for Bosun/Trawlerman. See download Bosun-Trawlmaster vessels over 70 feet.doc.

The exact duties required of fishermen will vary extensively according to the type of boat they are working on and the species being targeted. The main types of vessels are longliners, draggers/trawlers, gillnetters, seiners, and lobster boats. Each has its own set of gear and machinery requirements, all of which take time to learn and to be productive. More information is available under Sector Information – Fish Harvesting on FishJobs.ca.

Pay: Almost all positions on fishing vessels are paid out of a share of the catch landed by the vessel. The portion of the catch paid to each position varies and the relative share of each share also varies according to the species being landed. There is accurate information about the average pay levels of the fishing positions mentioned above on the HRDC web page links in those descriptions.

Many skippers and deckhands work consistently on one vessel and/or for one fishing company. Many skippers also own their vessel in the inshore, multi-species fishery. There are also a number of journeyman fishermen who travel to where the fishery is active and work as deckhands on whatever boat they can find.

Licences: Everyone who fishes for a living either full-time or part-time is required by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to carry a personal fishing licence. This licence costs $50.00 per year and must be shown to a Fisheries Officer if your vessel is boarded at sea. In 1999 DFO statistics show that there were 13,953 people in Nova Scotia who held such a commercial fishing licence.

HRDC also keeps information on people employed under the job categories described above. In 1999 there were 7,370 people employed on either a full or part time basis in these job categories. The variance between DFO and HRDC numbers of fishermen stems from the different way employment and licence statistics are counted. Plus, it may include a number of part-time fishermen who do not show up on HRDC lists. For more information about employment trends you can download an Excel file showing number of licenced fishers in Nova Scotia by using the NS Fishing Employment.xls

You can get an indication of which fisheries have large or small amounts of people working in them by looking at the number of licences authorized to fish each species. This is just a guide because the number of fishermen/women or companies licenced to fish use a varying number of people to work on a boat in their fishery varies from 2 to 10 with most being around 3 to 6. You can see the numbers of licences for each major fishery in Nova Scotia on the charts below.

In 1997, the latest year for which information is available, there were 14,256 fishing licences issued by DFO to Nova Scotian individuals and companies for all species of fish. Many people and companies hold more than one species licences. The table below shows the trends in the number of licences in the major fisheries in Nova Scotia.

Sizes of Boats: Charts shown near the start of this page show the numbers of fishing boats operated in Nova Scotia of various sizes. The overall trend has been for a decline in the number of boats licenced to fish, though not as significantly as the decline in groundfish catches might suggest.

In 1999 there were 4996 boats used in the NS fishery. Just over one-half of these were less than 35 feet, though this portion is declining. These boats are common in the lobster fishery and some fixed gear groundfish and pelagic fisheries. Almost another one-half of the boats were between 35 and 45 feet and this portion is increasing. This size boat is also used in the lobster and fixed gear fisheries, though many are also rigged for mobile gear groundfish as draggers. Boats over 45 feet account for only 5 percent of all vessels in Nova Scotia. There are complicated rules associated with DFO’s licencing system that regulate the size vessel that can be used on each licence. The chart below shows the number of different size vessels in 1999.

For an Excel file showing the statistics on boat sizes and licences by species used to generate the charts and tables in this area - download the NS Fishing Licences and Vessels.xls Career Contacts

On other FishJobs.ca career information pages we have provided contacts or list of aquaculture sites or fish plants for job seekers to see who are the employers in their area, but for fish harvesting such lists are hard to come by. DFO does not release lists of licence holders.

There are a few sources a person can tap for information on where to go to find potential employers. There are:

• the local wharf - asking around at local wharves is often the most direct way to find out if a Skipper or other vessel owner is hiring.
• fish plants - many skippers or vessel owners have a strong relationship with local plant owners and managers. You could ask these people if they know of anyone who’s hiring.
• fishermen’s organizations – local, county-based, gear-type or other kinds of organizations of fishermen/women abound throughout the province. These organizations are not meant for helping their members find deckhands but sometimes it is known which boats are looking for extra people.
• local development authorities – Local areas or counties have development authorities that may keep fairly up-to-date lists of fishing enterprises in their area. Links to these organizations can be found on the FishJobs.ca Other Links page.