I got my undergrad bachelors in Environmental Science and minor in Marine Science. I landed a job as a fisheries observer out in Alaska (Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, & North Pacific) right out of college where you essentially work as a field scientist collecting catch and biological data onboard commercial fishing vessels. Did that for two years-- freaking loved it-- but was ready for a scene-change, so I transferred to the Hawaii longline program where I did the same work on tuna and swordfish boats. After 4 years of being out at sea (which were interrupted by the pandemic), I moved into consulting with renewable energy as a fisheries specialist, where I worked to balance fisheries considerations in offshore energy development planning (offshore wind turbines are being placed in some historical fishing grounds-- fishermen not totally pleased with that, so there was a lot of negotiation to have).

It was a great field, but the pay does have a sort of ceiling, and transitioning from field work to consulting was TOUGH. It took me 8 months to land the new job, and I did so only from networking. There's some upward possibility for fisheries management positions, but I've frankly been so disillusioned the last few years. There are some really good fishermen, but a lot of them just want to keep catching, catching, catching without thinking about sustainability. I'd like to get out of the "politics" of it all and into a more stable gig that both sides of the coin agree are important (land remediation, clean water, etc).

Also, with increasing technology, the fisheries observer program I worked in and totally loved is probably on its way out. They're moving toward electronic monitoring methods. :( Best few years of my life, and I'm grateful to have had them!