KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 20, 2018 \u2013 Jared Leblanc gets an adrenalin rush watching Deadliest Catch, the Discovery Channel television program showcasing commercial fishermen in Alaska capturing king crab in the challenging waters of the Bering Sea. He likes the danger involved, the open stern of the boat, and the hands-on work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of career he has envisioned himself undertaking when the right opportunity presented itself. And now it has.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old resident of Webster, Mass., is one of 15 people from throughout southern New England enrolled in a month-long commercial fishing apprentice program sponsored by the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island and the 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n
The participants are spending four weeks learning such topics as boat safety and navigation, net mending, fish identification, engine maintenance, first aid and the operation of commercial vessels engaged in scalloping, lobstering, trawling and gillnetting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe training has been amazing, especially the safety training,\u201d said Leblanc. \u201cI know I\u2019ll survive and my boat will, too. I love the hands-on work, learning new stuff, being on boats, building partnerships, and making new friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Fred Mattera, executive director of the Commercial Fisheries Center, which is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s East Farm, many commercial fishing vessels are struggling to find crew members willing to work hard, go to sea for days at a time, and pursue a career in the fishing industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fleet is full of gray beards,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the youth anymore; we need an infusion of youth. It\u2019s a young man\u2019s game because it\u2019s a very physical job. There\u2019s good money to be made, but the captains can\u2019t get a crew.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Mattera obtained funding from the Real Jobs RI program of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training to launch a commercial fisheries apprentice program. With the exception of Alaska, it\u2019s the first such program in the nation, and Mattera has already received inquiries from other coastal states interested in launching a similar program.<\/p>\n
Every participant in the program receives $15 cash for lunch every day, $350 worth of fishing gear, and a $1,000 stipend for completing the program. All will likely have a job on a local fishing vessel by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Mitch Hatzipetro, a 溏心vlog免费B站 fisheries scientist who is co-teaching the course with Mattera and others, said that none of the students in the program \u2013 all between the ages of 19 and 34 \u2013 has extensive fishing experience, but all have demonstrated a strong interest in a fishing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had fishermen come in and look at the students as they\u2019re working and immediately offer them jobs,\u201d Hatzipetro said during a net-mending lesson. \u201cThere\u2019s a great need for people who can mend a net and do everything else that goes with the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenneth Poirier of Glocester, the youngest member of the class, enjoyed fishing with his father as a kid, \u201cbut I never imagined I could do it as a real job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the hard work, and that no two days are the same,\u201d added Poirier, who hopes to eventually work on a scallop boat. \u201cAnd I love the hands-on work. I learn best when it\u2019s hands-on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattera said that one of the challenges boat owners face in hiring inexperienced crew members is that half of them get seasick and don\u2019t want to return after the first trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re putting them on vessels and taking them to sea prior to them looking for a job on a boat,\u201d he said. \u201cBy then they\u2019ve overcome their sickness and are capable of going to sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping that in 5 to 7 years, the guys in this class are going to be the captains and boat owners who will take over and sustain this tradition of fishing in Rhode Island,\u201d Mattera concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 20, 2018 \u2013 Jared Leblanc gets an adrenalin rush watching Deadliest Catch, the Discovery Channel television program showcasing commercial fishermen in Alaska capturing king crab in the challenging waters of the Bering Sea. He likes the danger involved, the open stern of the boat, and the hands-on work. It\u2019s the kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}