Aquaculture

Types of Degrees Aquaculture Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many aquaculture graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	73
Master’s Degree	28
Basic Certificate	21
Associate Degree	12
Undergraduate Certificate	6
Doctor’s Degree	4
Graduate Certificate	3

What Aquaculture Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to aquaculture were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Aquaculture Majors

Aquaculture majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Aquaculture Majors

When studying aquaculture, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Abilities for Aquaculture Majors

As you progress with your aquaculture degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Aquaculture Major?

People with a aquaculture degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Agricultural Sciences Professors	7.9%	$84,640
First-Line Supervisors of Aquacultural Workers	2.1%	$46,960

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Aquaculture?

According to recent stats this major attracts about equal numbers of men and women. Roughly 47% of the graduates are women, and 53% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of aquaculture majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	68
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	4

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Aquaculture

Some careers associated with aquaculture require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for aquaculture careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	3.3%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	17.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	8.5%
Some College Courses	4.5%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	8.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	35.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.9%
Master’s Degree	4.0%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.2%
Doctoral Degree	11.2%
Post-Doctoral Training	5.5%

Online Aquaculture Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	3	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	6	0
Bachelor’s Degree	4	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	6	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	3	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Aquaculture

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to aquaculture.

Major	Number of Grads
Animal/Livestock Husbandry & Production	900
Agricultural Production Operations	710
Agroecology & Sustainable Agriculture	704
Crop Production	506
Horse Husbandry/Equine Science & Management	480
Dairy Husbandry & Production	66
Agricultural Production Operations	9

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By {} under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.