Direct and coordinate, through subordinate supervisory personnel, activities of workers engaged in fish hatchery production for corporations, cooperatives, or other owners.
U.S. Workers
5,910
Median Salary
$87,980
10-Year Growth
-1.3%
Annual Openings
85,500
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent
18 of 19 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Monitor environments to ensure maintenance of optimum conditions for aquatic life.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can continuously monitor water quality and environmental sensors and automatically adjust life‑support systems to maintain optimum conditions for aquatic life.
Collect and record growth, production, and environmental data.
AI: Fully automatable - Sensors, IoT, and data pipelines enable fully automated collection and recording of growth, production, and environmental data.
Account for and disburse funds.
AI: Fully automatable - Accounting and disbursement workflows are maturely automated with software and AI able to perform these tasks end-to-end under standard controls.
Prepare reports required by state and federal laws.
AI: Fully automatable - Given structured data, AI can compile and populate required compliance reports automatically, although legal sign-offs may remain human responsibilities.
Collect information regarding techniques for fish collection and fertilization, spawn incubation, and treatment of spawn and fry.
AI: Fully automatable - AI systems can search literature, aggregate protocols, and synthesize techniques for collection, fertilization, incubation, and treatment, effectively automating information collection and summarization.
Grow fish and shellfish as cash crops or for release into freshwater or saltwater.
AI: Partial - AI and automation can manage many aquaculture tasks (feeding, monitoring, environmental control), but fully growing and managing stock end‑to‑end still requires human or substantial physical automation beyond current widespread AI capability.
Supervise and train aquaculture and fish hatchery support workers.
AI: Partial - AI can provide training content, performance monitoring, and decision support for staff, but full supervision and nuanced personnel management of hatchery workers remain only partially automatable.
Determine, administer, and execute policies relating to operations administration and standards, and facility maintenance.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze operations, propose policies, and automate routine administration tasks, but determining and executing high‑level policies and maintenance standards still require human leadership and accountability.
Direct and monitor trapping and spawning of fish, egg incubation, and fry rearing, applying knowledge of management and fish culturing techniques.
AI: Partial - Automated incubators and monitoring systems can handle routine spawning and fry rearing, but complex trapping and adaptive management still need human oversight.
Direct and monitor the transfer of mature fish to lakes, ponds, streams, or commercial tanks.
AI: Partial - Robotic handling and automated transfer systems can assist but variable site conditions and animal welfare considerations mean humans usually must direct transfers.
Determine how to allocate resources and to respond to unanticipated problems, such as insect infestation, drought, and fire.
AI: Partial - AI can provide predictive models and decision support but resource allocation and emergency response to unpredictable events require human judgment and coordination.
Conduct and supervise stock examinations to identify diseases or parasites.
AI: Partial - Machine vision and lab automation can detect many diseases and parasites, yet conducting and supervising physical examinations and interpreting ambiguous cases still need humans.
Design and construct pens, floating stations, and collector strings or fences for sea farms.
AI: Partial - AI can generate designs and perform engineering simulations for pens and floating structures, but cannot themselves carry out physical construction or on-site adaptations without human or robotic labor.
Devise and participate in activities to improve fish hatching and growth rates, and to prevent disease in hatcheries.
AI: Partial - AI can optimize hatching protocols and suggest disease-prevention measures, but devising and participating in experimental and operational changes require human expertise and hands-on work.
Identify environmental requirements of a particular species, and select and oversee the preparation of sites for species cultivation.
AI: Partial - Environmental requirement databases and modeling can identify species needs and propose site preparations, but on-site assessments and oversight need human evaluation.
Operate and maintain cultivating and harvesting equipment.
AI: Partial - Autonomous and remote-control equipment can operate many cultivation and harvesting tasks and provide diagnostics, but complex maintenance and unpredictable failures still require human technicians.
Confer with biologists, fish pathologists, and other fishery personnel to obtain data concerning fish habits, diseases, food, and environmental requirements.
AI: Partial - AI can gather, synthesize, and summarize scientific data and facilitate communication with specialists, but it cannot fully replace expert judgement and nuanced human collaboration in fisheries discussions.
Coordinate the selection and maintenance of brood stock.
AI: Partial - AI can analyze genetic and health data and recommend broodstock selection and maintenance schedules, but cannot perform hands-on health assessments or operational oversight required for final decisions.
Scuba dive to inspect sea farm operations.
AI: Not automatable - Scuba diving is a physical task requiring human presence and manual inspection; while AI can support ROVs, it cannot itself perform a human scuba dive.