Boatswain
Also called bosum, senior crewman, senior crewwoman
Boatswains organise the crew on deck and at the fishing hold to execute the orders received from a superior. They coordinate the operations of maintenance, manoeuvres, assembly and repair of fishing gear and sorting, processing and preserving of the catches while observing the hygienic standards and established safety regulations.
What you'd do
Ships' deck crews and related workers · ILO- Standing look-out watches at sea and when entering or leaving harbour or other narrow waters
- Steering ship according to instructions
- Handling ropes and wires, and operates mooring equipment
- Maintaining and, in some cases, operating ship’s equipment, cargo gear, rigging, lifesaving and firefighting appliances
- Performing deck and hull cleaning, scraping, painting and other maintenance duties as required
- Breaking out, rigging and stowing cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging and running gear
- Mostly outdoors
- On your feet most of the day
- Lots of contact with people
- Good freedom to decide
- Often more than 40 hours a week
- Deadlines now and then
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,000 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,100 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among plant and machine operators, and assemblers in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in fisheries is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.14 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 6 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for ships' deck crews and related workers. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).