Fisheries? FISHERIES. The word may evoke images of boring schools of fish that you don’t personally care to know more about. This was me, pre-fisheries technician job. Don’t worry, I will keep this short. To apply for any job one of the prerequisites I have would be a personal vested interest in some aspect of it. I love coffee, hence my barista job. I love coral reefs, hence my coral nursery assistant job. As for fisheries? Do I love canned tuna?? Heckyeah I do! But more importantly, I love fresh tuna sashimi or sushi, I love eating fried reef fish, I absolutely love the taste of the fresh marlin kelaguen at the Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative Association (GFCA, or co-op for short). Don’t you?
All the aforementioned fish have species that are on the brink of being overfished. It’s a hurtful sad world out there for these fish. And the worst part about it is that as much as I know this, I can’t even stop myself from buying into it. I am a consumer and I am also the creator of this demand, partially–a tiny drop in the huge pool of fish consumers. My father is a strong believer in fishing just for your family (sustainable harvesting), and instilled this value in me as well. Knowing all of this motivated me to put on a strong face and apply for the job, go through the interview, the background check, etc and when I found out I got it I was giddy with glee but also apprehension because my knowledge of fisheries was mediocre at best (compared to the best). Going back to the overfishing, what I do is basically gather data about fisheries that are important to Guam. These data go back through the years to form a baseline to give us an understanding of how quickly downhill we’re going in terms of fishing out the big ones. It’s an ugly truth–like a lurking credit score of less than 600–and yet we’re taking loans out every day, against the future of our fisheries and the future generations of people.
Because of the nature of the work we do, I cannot disclose much about what I do personally except to say what has been published and is open for the public to see. Although the last report was published in 2014, it is still the most updated and relevant source of information on fisheries in this region. I will say that the work I do is very fulfilling, and is giving me a renewed perspective on an old dream of mine (ichthyology) and making me wonder what more I can contribute, and how much more time I am willing to invest in this particular area of marine science. In truth, it’s a very viable grad school option. I am definitely considering it, though I have much to learn.
Practical skills acquired:
- identify common and commercially valuable food fish to species level whenever possible
- work with a team
- conduct census surveys of fish landings
- extract fish gonads and otoliths
- Create and maintain new and existing market contacts
- Help with derby weighing station duties
- Sort and organize gonad/otolith inventory
- Characterize species-specific otolith metrics
- Maintain a good relationship with the local fishing community

