NOC 85102: Aquaculture and marine harvest labourers

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.

Express Entry eligibility

• Skilled work (TEER 0 to 3): no, TEER 5 does not count for Express Entry.
• Canadian Experience Class: does not count.
• Federal Skilled Worker Program: does not count.
• Federal Skilled Trades Program: not one of the eligible trades.
• High-wage occupation (from November 3, 2026): no. No high-wage add-on, and a job offer in it earns no CRS points.

TEER 5: Occupations that usually need short-term work demonstration and no formal education. Every program has other requirements too, such as language test results and, for FSW, a points test.

Category-based draws

NOC 85102 is not on any of IRCC’s occupation category lists. You can still be invited in general, Canadian Experience Class or other program draws if you qualify through other experience.

Category lists checked on canada.ca on 2026-10-17. IRCC category-based selection

CRS points for work in NOC 85102

None. Work in TEER 4 and 5 occupations earns no Canadian work points in the CRS.

See Canadian work points and the median-wage rule.

Main duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

• 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.

For Express Entry your duties must match the lead statement and most of the main duties above.

Example job titles

• aquaculture support worker
• clam digger
• dulse gatherer
• fish farm helper
• fish tagger
• fry marker
• marine plant gatherer
• oyster picker
• sea farm attendant
• seaweed gatherer
• shellfish harvester

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.

Similar jobs with a different code

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