OBJECTIVE

• To gain employment in the field of aquaculture, and attain vital experience along with knowledge that will assist me in developing a career.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Fish Hatchery Specialist

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Incubation room maintenance and recording. Set up of incubation trays, monitoring water temperature, treating as needed, and sorting live from dead eggs.
• Collecting adult salmonids for spawning. This requires working at various trapping sites with the ability to identify different species salmon and other fish species. Fish are then safely transported to the hatchery by truck, and separated by species and stock. Treating with approved chemicals is a requirement to assure the fish stay in an acceptable condition while being held in rearing ponds until spawning.
• Juvenile salmonid monitoring. Fish are fed daily along with picking loss. Weekly size and weight sampling. Observations to eating habits and overall behavior are taken into account to assess the health of each pond. This is done at both the hatchery and at different acclimation sites off hatchery grounds.
• Spawning. Eggs and milt are collected from adult salmon. They are transported to the incubation room to complete their life cycle until they hatch.
• Data recording and entry. Water temperature, oxygen levels, flows, feed amounts, and treatments must all be recorded appropriately.
• Safe use of vehicles and machinery. Driving is a requirement for this job. A forklift is commonly used on hatchery grounds to move supplies along with a utility vehicle.
• Maintenance projects. Pond cleaning and preparation is done as needed. This includes setting and cleaning screens, pressure washing, vacuuming, clearing brush, washing and fueling vehicles, picking up supplies, and winterizing equipment.

Fish Hatchery Technician

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Set up and tear down of Gray Wolf and Dungeness river remote rearing sites. This included transporting and assembly of two ponds, a camping trailer, generator, and various plumbing for the intake and outflow. A diversion was created to increase flow to the side channel used for the intake at Gray Wolf. Bird netting and an electric fence were also installed around the pond to keep animals out. All materials were dis - assembled and hauled out upon completion of the project.
• Monitoring remote sites. Twice daily check up on both locations. Checking water flow, picking loss, and delivering supplies such as gas and fish food. Sampling was done prior to release.
• Site maintenance and repair. Checking the intake and removing any debris, along with lawn mowing, weed whacking, and painting.
• Feeding fish. Coho, chinook, and steelhead are raised here
• Safely operating vehicles and other equipment.

Hatchery Technician

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Sampling fish size and monitoring growth patterns. Sampling occurred once a week to ensure growth patterns and health were consistent among all net pens.
• Data entry regarding feed amounts correlating to fish growth.
• Transferring and splitting fish. This included transferring freshly hatched chum salmon from incubation tray to pond. Coho and chinook were split to separate ponds once they reached larger size.
• Net maintenance. All the nets used on the remote rearing sites had to be cleaned using a net washer. Afterwards they were hung in a large room to mend any holes found, and then stored once they had dried.
• Incubation room preparation. This included pressure washing the room, cleaning incubation trays, and setting water flow screens to the appropriate height.
• Spawning preparation. This included pressure washing raceways and all equipment used. Jump screens were installed to prevent adult salmon from jumping out of the raceways.
• Collecting supplies and groceries for remote projects. All shopping for the remote projects was done by one person from each remote site in town.
• Coded wire tagging of coho salmon.
• Safely operating boats and vehicles.
• Site maintenance including brush cutting and equipment organization.

Assistant Supervisor

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Reviewing, planning and assigning work tasks for corps members in completing conservation projects.
• Managing the completion of projects. This includes monitoring the use of materials, communicating with the project sponsor regarding progress, and assigning tasks to individual members.
• Ensuring that equipment is being used safely and makes sure all equipment is properly maintained.
• Operating power tools, such as chain saws, weed-eaters, drills, augers, laser transits and others.
• Operating state owned/leased vehicles, usually four wheel drive pick-up trucks. I was responsible for safely transporting the crew to and from the work site.
• Using hand tools, such as shovels, hoes, rakes, hammers and axes.
• Working on steep inclines for long periods of time.
• Walking several miles per day in rough, unstable terrain.
• Lifting 60 pounds or more repetitively for long periods of time.

Hatchery Technician

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Egg collection and fertilization. During the month of August I helped collect 170 million eggs from chum salmon.
• Monitoring health of salmon fry. Daily fish feeding, weight sampling, water flow recording, and maintaining clean raceways were priorities to ensure healthy fish.
• Incubation room preparation. This included pressure washing the room, cleaning incubation trays, and setting water flow screens to the appropriate height.
• Brood collection. This was done by safely operating a vessel while transporting net pens with adult salmon to a secure location for release.
• Species Identification. Many chinook and coho returned during this period. A screw trap was used to separate fish which had to be identified, counted, and separated by species.
• Otolith removal from adult salmon.

Corps Member

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Netting and Transporting adult Chinook and Steelhead. Fish were taken to raceways to be held until spawning.
• Clipping Adipose fins from juvenile Steelhead.
• Feeding fish.
• Maintenance projects such as brush cutting and pressure washing.