85102 Aquaculture and marine harvest labourers

What this occupation covers

Aquaculture and marine harvest labourers include aquaculture support workers, marine plant gatherers, shellfish diggers and other labourers in aquaculture and fishing. Aquaculture support workers are employed by public or private fish hatcheries and commercial aquatic farms. Marine plant gatherers and mollusk harvesters may be self-employed.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 12 main duties for this code.

• Assist aquaculture technicians in the operation of fish hatcheries or other aquatic farms
• Feed aquaculture stocks, vaccinate stocks, perform culling and marking or banding techniques and report any observed irregularities in stocks
• Operate, maintain and clean pumps, filters, tanks and other aquaculture equipment and clean and maintain aquaculture enclosures
• Keep daily records of water flow and fish, shellfish and marine plant samples
• Grade and weigh aquaculture stocks
• Prepare aquaculture stocks for market
• Rake seaweed, dulse or Irish moss from beach, rocks or shallow water and load into a cart, wagon or other receptacles
• Spread gatherings to dry and remove foreign objects
• Transport gatherings to processing plant
• Dig clams from beds with spades, forks or other instruments, or collect other mollusks
• Clean, sort and transport mollusks to market
• May operate boats for aquaculture operations.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 12 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 83121 Fishermen/women
• 84121 Fishing vessel deckhands
• 80022 Managers in aquaculture

Excluded from this code

• Fishermen/women (See 83121 Fishermen/women)
• Fishing vessel deckhands (See 84121 Fishing vessel deckhands)
• Managers in aquaculture (See 80022 Managers in aquaculture)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

aquaculture support worker · aquaculture worker · clam digger · dulse gatherer · fish farm helper · fish farm worker · fish hatchery attendant · fish hatchery tagger · fish hatchery worker · fish hatchery worker - aquaculture · fish tagger · fry marker · fry marker - fishing · fry tagger · hatchery helper · hatchery worker - aquaculture · Irish moss gatherer · lobster pound attendant · marine plant gatherer · mussel farm labourer · mussel harvester · oyster harvester · oyster picker · oyster picker-shucker

Employment requirements

• Some secondary school education is usually required.
• Shellfish harvesters require commercial fishing licences.
• Marine Emergency Duties certificate may be required for some occupations in this unit group.