How To Become A Fishing Vessel Mate: What It Is and Career Path

What is a fishing vessel mate and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a fishing vessel mate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.51 an hour? That's $59,293 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFishing Vessel MateUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $59,293

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.09%

Asian 3.15%

Black or African American 6.93%

Hispanic or Latino 8.98%

Unknown 4.74%

White 75.13%

Gender

female 11.27%

male 88.73%

Age - 40.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40.5

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.3

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fishing vessel mate

Explore fishing vessel mate education requirements

Most common fishing vessel mate degrees

Bachelor's

51.6 %

High School Diploma

19.4 %

Associate

16.1 %

Start to develop specific fishing vessel mate skills

Skills	Percentages
Emergency Drills	65.14%
Passenger Safety	34.86%

Complete relevant fishing vessel mate training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New fishing vessel mates learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a fishing vessel mate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real fishing vessel mate resumes.

Research fishing vessel mate duties and responsibilities

Spearhead cross-functional initiative to achieve successful whole shipments of wild Alaskan salmofrozen and gut.
Spearhead cross-functional initiative to achieve successful whole shipments of wild Alaskan salmofrozen and gut.
Trained/Mentore multiple junior officers in dynamic positioning, ballast control, and seamanship.

Prepare your fishing vessel mate resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your fishing vessel mate resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a fishing vessel mate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable fishing vessel mate resume templates

Build a professional fishing vessel mate resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your fishing vessel mate resume.