UMass Boston

Learn to unpack key issues and challenges facing the sustainable seafood industry.

UMass Boston’s Sustainable Marine Aquaculture Certificate focuses on preparing you to successfully address key issues and challenges facing the aquaculture industry to ensure sustained growth. It’s designed for professionals already working in the field, students who are looking to gain additional industry expertise, and individuals trying to break into the aquaculture industry who want to hone their skills and add a certification to their résumé. Learn the business of aquaculture—the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of fish, shellfish, plants, algae, and other organisms in all aquatic environments—and explore ways to make this growing and rapidly expanding industry more sustainable. With an Aquaculture Certificate, you can work in both the private and commercial sectors as an oyster farmer, seaweed cultivator, or processor, or you could work on a fish farm as a technician, general worker, scientist, engineer, or manager. You could also work for a regulatory agency working towards maintaining healthy sustainable practices.

If you’re trying to break into the growing and rapidly expanding aquaculture industry, you’re already working in the field, or you are a student looking to add additional expertise to your résumé, sign up to take a course or to declare the certificate program. We offer courses and certificates for academic credit and for continuing education credits. Taking an aquaculture class could also help you secure an internship working outdoors and on the oceans.

All courses in UMass Boston’s Sustainable Marine Aquaculture program are open to the UMass Boston community as well as students from other universities and the public. Our goal is to provide a flexible and accessible introduction to this emerging field and so offer a variety of options to suit your individual needs.

Outcomes

At the end of this two-semester program, you’ll be awarded a professional certificate in Sustainable Marine Aquaculture. After taking online aquaculture classes from UMass Boston, you will have a basic foundation in the field of aquaculture. The certificate will demonstrate your expertise in the field on your résumé, as well as in interviews and workplace evaluations.

This certificate prepares you for a career in commercial and private sectors and regulatory agencies, as well as multiple other careers. You could work for a fish farm, oyster farmer, seaweed cultivator, or processor both in the commercial and private sectors.

Fish farms hire technicians and general workers to:

• carry out collection
• feed
• monitor stock
• identify any problems or diseases
• run the hatchery to provide a consistent inventory to new stock

Fish farms hire scientists to implement strategies that will maintain the healthy growth of fish stocks. Fish farms hire engineers to be in charge of equipment and machinery such as water pumps, water treatment devices, boats, and upwellers. Managers oversee everything and deal with budgets and accounting, client meetings and sales, risk assessment, and insurance and policy-related issues.

With your certificate in Sustainable Marine Aquaculture, you could also work for a regulatory agency working towards maintaining healthy sustainable practices.