fishery biologist

[Jabbo]

I was at the KY State facility earlier this year. They have a facility that studies black bass as well as other fish species right behind the football fields. It's pretty neat. I don't know of any other university with this type of training closer to Louisville than this.

[boondock]

great question, I am also interested.

[smuckey41]

thanks guys for the info

chuck

[Shimano4Life]

Basically you start out with a 4-year Bachelor's in Biology degree, all the while choosing your emphasis in Aquaculture.

Upon receipt of your Bachelor's, you should continue your biology studies and receive a Master's degree in Ichthyology (Nekton Vertebrates).

A friend of mine's father is a fisheries biologist for Alabama Department of Fish and Wildlife Resource Management. He has shocked, taken data, dyed (yes, DYED) shad different colors to track movement and growth, among other things. He has told us several hundred stories about the work he does and the information and statistics that he provides for record. Truly an intriguing occupation.

Be ready to spend some money for your education. I once pondered this field, but chose to stick with Business Administration. Good luck to you.

[Splatterback]

Definitely do a search of the Louisville biology or ecology (not sure how they break up their departments) faculty and see if they have a Ichthyologist you could contact. Also would contact your regional fisheries biologist and see if you could volunteer for anything. Could be a great opportunity to get some experience/part-time job. I would suggest also looking at Eastern and Morehead in addition to KY state especially if you go for a MS. I got my BS (biology) and MS (biology) from Morehead and know a few fellow grad students who did projects in nearby hatcheries (Minor E Clark, Wolfe Creek). Most of them have went on to get state fisheries biologist positions. Definitely will have to pay for your BS degree but most grad students are funded by their major advisor's grant(s). So provided you get out of your undergrad without too much debt you won't have to pay too much extra for more advanced degrees (thou don't expect to be paid much as a grad student). A lot of competition for state biologist position. Good Luck.

[artcarney_agr]

I highly recommend Murray State if you're serious about it.

KY Lake is about 20 minutes away. It's a great place to be for a man who loves to hunt and fish.

Murray is a college town, with lots of part time work available with college kids in mind.

I have two buddies who both graduated as fisheries biologists from Murray State.

One went to Alaska for a year to do field studies on crab and scallop populations - he basically lived on commercial fishing boats 90% of the time. That one year he put in up there gave him priority of almost anywhere he wanted to work when he came back stateside. Right now, he's living on an island in the Gulf, just off of the Louisiana shore. He studies the Redfish population - you can't net them, for netting causes too much harm to other species...so the only way to monitor them is to go fishing for them. That's right, he spends 5 days a week fishing for Redfish, on an island, in the Gulf. Sounds pretty awesome huh?

As for the other, he's currently in Puerto Rico doing a two year stint down there as a game warden. He's done some pretty amazing stuff there as a federal agent, and of course will have a HUGE leg up on most any job he wants stateside as a game warden.

It's an awesome field to be in, and I would have gone that route too...however I was pretty decent at math in school went down the engineering road.

Good luck to you!

[smuckey41]

thanks again for all the info guys i am looking into it. thanks again


chuck