Fisheries Sciences

Types of Degrees Fisheries Sciences Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many fisheries sciences graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Graduate Certificate	56
Master’s Degree	41
Doctor’s Degree	9

What Fisheries Sciences Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to fisheries and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Fisheries Majors

Fisheries majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Skills for Fisheries Majors

fisheries majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Abilities for Fisheries Majors

A major in fisheries will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Fisheries Sciences Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with fisheries:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
First-Line Supervisors of Aquacultural Workers	2.1%	$46,960

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in Fisheries Sciences?

This major is dominated by women with about 59% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of fisheries majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	5
White	32
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Fisheries, too. About 2.4% of those with this major are international students. The most popular countries for students from outside the country are:

• Japan
• China
• Ghana
• Colombia
• Mexico

How Much Do Fisheries Sciences Majors Make?

Master’s Degree Starting Salary

The U.S. Department of Education found that students who graduated in 2017-2019 with a master’s degree in fisheries sciences made a median starting salary of $42,451 per year. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $40,507 (25th percentile) and $44,396 (75th percentile).

It’s important to note that just because the people reporting these salaries have a degree in fisheries, it does not mean that they are working in a job related to their degree.

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $50,790 to $59,260 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to fisheries. This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Fisheries Sciences

Some degrees associated with fisheries may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for fisheries careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	20.4%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	21.2%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	3.7%
Some College Courses	2.9%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	2.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	44.5%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	3.2%
Master’s Degree	1.5%

Online Fisheries Sciences Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 29 schools offered some type of fisheries sciences program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	2	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	5	1
Bachelor’s Degree	2	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	9	1
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	6	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Fisheries Sciences Worth It?

The median salary for a fisheries grad is $50,790 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 27% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $217,800 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Fisheries Sciences

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to fisheries.

Major	Number of Grads
Natural Resources Conservation	3,724
Natural Resource Management	1,073
Forestry	486
Wildlife Management	323
Natural Resources Conservation (Other)	32

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Ootahara under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.