A report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council notes "current difficulties in recruiting and retaining observers."
The report says "conversations are underway" about solutions, including "options for allowing providers to hire foreign nationals to be observers in the Alaska fisheries."
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8 comments:
Very interesting. Can you share that report? I Googled, "options for allowing providers to hire foreign nationals to be observers in the Alaska fisheries," and the only hit I got was Deckboss.
Mark, the report is hyperlinked in the post. And here is the actual address:
https://meetings.npfmc.org/CommentReview/DownloadFile?p=e47f8f3f-516e-4d3c-a761-1796cd4b58c4.pdf&fileName=C3%20FMAC%20report%20-%20Sep%202019.pdf
They need to do away with the nonsense requirements for a degree to perform the functions of an observer. Counting, weighing, and identifying fish can be easily trained in a a matter of weeks.
Observer Qualifications: Bachelors degree in Biology or other natural science is required including: 30 semester hours of biological coursework at least 1 course that required extensive use of dichotomous keys 5 semester hours of mathematics consisting of at least 1 math course and 1 statistics course.
There is no need for the requirement to have a degree in Biology. With the proper training and the use of digital photography, to aid in the use of identification of off species, the job could be opened up to more applicants.
I wholeheartedly agree with eliminating the BS in Biology degree requirement. They could require an Associates in Fish Tech. (UAS offers a program) or a BA in any course of study with relevant field experience (which is what I have).
I port sampled for ADF&G for years, and had really good evaluations of my work. It was "permanent seasonal" work, and I was always frustrated that I couldn't hop on a boat and do some observer hitches to supplement my income back then. Might have stayed in the game longer, as I had no interest in going back to school and getting another degree.
I usually don't comment on anything, but I feel really strongly about this. It doesn't take a BS in Biology to make a good observer/sampler. Interpersonal skills, hard work ethic, and knowledge of fish ID (in that order) make a good observer.
It is understandable that they can't fill the positions, they pay $4,200 if you are at sea for an entire month. So after taxes they take home $3,200, or a $100 about per day. Its not bad money, but for a college grad there are other options that come close to this amount of money that doesn't involve being on a fishing boat.
I work at Fish and Game as an FB II. My entry level technicians make more money than observers nowadays. They don't need a college degree, just a high school diploma, a good work ethic, and the ability to handle a shotgun without hurting themselves or others. When I started out in the field as a seasonal employee for the State and other organizations, I didn't even consider working as an observer. The boats I was on paid 300 plus a day for someone who could operate specialized technical sampling equipment.
Why do we need observers at all? Occasionally observing a fishery should more than suffice for obtaining biological & statistical data. Best done by a biologist managing that fishery. The observer programs we have are parasitic nannies.
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