Knowledge, Skills, and Competencies for a Fish Hatchery Biologist

The competencies deemed important by fisheries administrators for a hatchery biologist were outlined in an article in Fisheries (see Table 1 of Gabelhouse 2010). The list of competencies was actually a list of classes. It is possible that fisheries administrators erroneously assume certain knowledge or skills are a standard part of the classes they ranked as important. Among academic programs, classes with the same name could provide quite different knowledge and skill sets. Furthermore, learning occurs in three domains, cognitive (what a student knows), affective (what a student values), and psychomotor (what a student can do). It is also possible that fisheries administrators erroneously assume that students are learning psychomotor skills, when courses are more focused on cognitive learning. This talk will examine the perceptions of hatchery administrators and academics regarding the nature of the knowledge, skills, and competencies most commonly associated with the courses deemed important for hatchery biologists. The talk will also compare the skills listed in position announcements for hatchery biologists with the skills actually included in the courses deemed important for hatchery biologists.