What if you could find a secure, well-paying government job,
but instead of a cubicle, your office has an endless horizon?
It's definitely not your 9 to 5 job...
Never a dull moment.
It's kinda fun.
Instead of a commute, you get to travel around the world?
You go places not many people get to go.
We got some time in at St. Kitts and in the Virgin Islands.
We're going to take off to French Polynesia and Nuku Hiva.
Places I've never been.
Places that are so pristine
that no one in the commercial industry will ever get to.
And what if, instead of a monotonous day-in, day-out shift,
your job was surrounded by cutting-edge technology
and groundbreaking discoveries every day?
You get involved in projects that you read about in the news.
There's always new things you're discovering.
You're surrounded by the latest and greatest technology,
new designs, new engineering systems...
That's what you'll find in a career with
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA -
the premier science agency of the United States federal government.
Aboard NOAA's growing fleet of oceanographic and fishing vessels,
career positions are available at all levels of experience,
including no experience.
As a civilian mariner with NOAA,
you'll have opportunities to train and work at sea
aboard state-of-the-art scientific ships,
which are commanded and managed by officers
in the NOAA Corps, as well as civilian officers.
The NOAA Corps is a branch of the uniformed service
dedicated specifically to NOAA and under NOAA's own leadership.
You will work in concert with these officers and visiting science teams
in support of NOAA's mission:
to further the nation's understanding of oceans and atmosphere,
support commerce,
and protect lives and property.
It's no small thing that we're going out
and that the data we collect
is the data that they use to manage the fisheries.
We're part of that, there's no doubt.
That's what we do.
A lot of the science that is done out here
is pretty high-profile stuff
and these ships support that science.
All through college you learn about NOAA as being
a leader in oceanographic research,
and to be able to work for the organization is pretty amazing,
The instruments that protect our coasts from deadly tsunamis
are deployed by NOAA wage mariners.
When disasters occur at sea,
NOAA ships respond, lending their unique capabilities
to mitigation efforts.
And research that shapes national policy on air quality,
climate change, fishery management
and many other key issues could not be maintained
without competent mariners keeping the ship and its crew going.
Without the mariners you will not accomplish any mission.
A deck officer, as myself, drives the ship,
whereas the mariner will be the one
that's actually making sure that we get our mission completed.
We will get out there, they will service the buoy,
they will make sure that we get the fishing lines in and out.
They're the ones that feed us.
They're the ones that collect some of the scientific data
and they're the ones that clean the ship and maintain the ship
and make sure it's running in proper condition.
Most of the vessels in the NOAA fleet remain in U.S. waters.
Home ports are many...
from Woods Hole to Kodiak,
and from Charleston to Honolulu.
Many of the ships in the fleet are new, with more on the way,
which means you'll have the opportunity to work
on high-tech, modernized platforms,
such as acoustically quiet fishery science vessels
and a recently refitted ship devoted entirely to ocean exploration.
When you're bringing stuff up from the ocean
it's really exciting to see these things,
especially stuff you've never seen before.
Stuff that looks just like the weird cartoons
and the science fiction stuff.
It's an unbelievable science platform -
anything from acoustics to fish surveys
to charting the ocean bottom
to studying the water column.
Basically, in a nutshell,
it's like the space shuttle but on the ocean.
NOAA wage mariner pay is based on an annual salary.
Work schedules vary from ship to ship,
but the typical work week is seven days
and overtime is earned for all work over 8 hours, weekends, and holidays.
You're getting paid a really good salary
and they're giving you room and board,
so it's all gravy.
Especially if you're a college kid coming and looking to do this work.
You're basically just putting money in the bank.
I would say it's a very good starting salary.
And the good thing about NOAA
is you have a chance to move up
to different ships and different qualifications,
and each time you move up your pay advances.
Fulltime wage mariners are federal government employees,
with unmatched job security and benefits.
You know you're going to have a steady job
and a steady paycheck with NOAA,
whereas with the commercial sector there's no real job security
unless you have a permanent employment with a company,
and then they can lay you off at any point in time.
You have the security of the government job, the federal job...
and you get government retirement, savings plan, health benefits.
It's a well rounded package.
In contrast to commercial or military schedules,
NOAA ship schedules allow mariners
to sail for shorter periods of time between breaks.
On this particular ship, we're in every couple of weeks
so you're not gone for four to six months at a whack.
You do get a chance to see your family on,
basically, a 10- to 14-day rotation, depending on the ship's mission.
You spend more time in port,
there's more chances to visit your relatives,
your families,
connect with life ashore.
Commercial world - it's sail, sail, sail, sail, sail,
then you get a block of time off,
then you're not sure if you'll go back to a ship
or when you might go back.
With NOAA you have periods you know you're going to be in port,
you know you're going to have vacations planned
and you're in frequently enough so that you can actually have a regular life.
The hallmark of a NOAA wage mariner career is flexibility.
NOAA's missions are diverse and they occur all over the world.
In many mariner positions, you stay on one ship doing one job.
As a NOAA wage mariner, that doesn't have to be the case.
NOAA mariners are given the flexibility to transfer from ship to ship,
allowing them to branch out, learn new fields,
advance, and pursue new licenses.
When I was 17 I went in the Navy, and I was a boatswain mate
as well as a collateral duty search and rescue swimmer.
And the jobs that I actually had to participate in were very specific.
Working with NOAA, I'm getting a broad array
of different jobs and tasks that have to be done out here,
so I've gotten a lot more training in different fields.
So whether it be with the dive medical technician stuff
or emergency medical technician schools or coxswain schools,
davit and crane schools, firefighting schools,
there's a lot more on your plate
because you're working with a smaller group of people.
Another level of flexibility is offered with NOAA's augmentation pool,
where mariners can fill in for each other for short periods,
offering flexibility when you need to take leave,
and the chance to try out new jobs in new places.
You can come out here for one cruise
and then you go to another vessel,
so you can experience the whole wonder of it all.
You can go out there and do fisheries
one month and come over here and do buoys with us,
and the next minute go on the RON BROWN
and go return to the Titanic, for all you know.
I've done everything from retrieving moorings and buoys in the Bering Sea
to mammal observation in southeast Alaska
to fishing for lobsters in the northwest Hawaiian Islands.
I don't know what kind of other flexibility you have out in the commercial fleet.
A lot of it's union,
you kind of get contracted to one boat,
you do what you can.
Out here I know if you get tired on this boat
and you want to try something else, the way is open if you're a good worker.
Plus they provide all the training that you need for your job, and more.
They're going to teach you everything.
And you don't have to have, really,
any prior skills coming in, other than common sense.
The same training that a wage mariner could get through NOAA
is something that they would have to pay for
in the outside world themselves to get a license.
The way that people gain promotions and go up in levels of responsibility,
either in the deck or the engine room,
is through different licenses.
Some of the training for the deck department
would be obtaining your AB Unlimited, some documentation,
or even if you sailed as a junior engineer or an oiler on this vessel
you can eventually work your way up to a licensed engineer position,
all provided by NOAA.
If you're willing to do the work and put in the time,
NOAA's willing to back you and give you the training
and let you go all the way up.
Most NOAA mariner positions fall under one of four departments:
the deck department,
the engineering department,
the steward department,
and the survey department.
NOAA is a multifaceted organization,
and shipboard missions are very diverse.
But crucial to the success of each one
is the role played by the ship's deck department.
A NOAA ship doesn't depart
or tie up at a dock or arrive on a location
without the deck hands handling lines and weighing anchor.
From fishing trawl nets to oceanographic instruments
to rescue boats to supplies, the deck department is directly involved
with everything that goes on or off a NOAA ship.
Each person that's a part of this crew has a lot of responsibilities,
whether it be being a coxswain running the boats out there
and keeping the scientists safe while they're out there performing their jobs
or you're on deck running the cranes, handling lines.
There's a lot that goes on that you have to be ready for.
It's extremely important to have trust in your shipmates
when you're doing this and you need to be confident
upon what your tasks are and what you're doing.
We have training all the time as well.
When we have our drills it's to keep our skills proficient.
The engineering department is in charge of everything
involved with the propulsion of the ship
and the safe and efficient operation of all the ship's systems.
We have a crew of six engineers,
and our duties are to keep everything on the ship running,
whether it be hotel services
all the way down to main propulsion to the mission support equipment.
Just keeping a NOAA ship running is a fulltime operation,
but that doesn't mean it's a monotonous job
that only happens in the belly of the ship.
With the variety of operations in the NOAA fleet,
there are new challenges with each mission, all around the ship.
Because of the duties of the engine room
we are quite involved with everything on the ship,
and a lot of that overlaps with the mission work.
Whether it be with the support equipment, the winches,
the hydraulics, the conveyor system in the wet lab,
we do get involved with everything on the ship.
Since NOAA is at the forefront of oceanic research,
its newer ships are state of the art.
A career in NOAA's engineering department offers the chance
of being on the cutting edge of new design and new engineering.
If the engineering department is in charge of keeping the ship moving,
the stewards are in charge of keeping the crew moving.
Would you like some?
All over the fleet, NOAA mariners are saying the same thing
about the food served on NOAA ships.
The food on this ship is awesome.
I think the food is awesome.
The food's awesome!
The steward we have right now, I wouldn't trade her for the world.
It's good, man, it's wholesome and they just keep it coming.
Full plate, every meal.
The food is outstanding
and it really, really is a strong point in the morale onboard a ship.
For dinner tonight we have veal chops
and vegetable sauce,
and we also have a mustard-rubbed pork loin,
which we have going on in the oven right now.
We give them all fresh ingredients.
We do fresh soups on a daily basis, fresh vegetables,
and we also give them a huge variety of choices.
We don't limit our menu to just one or two different items.
You just see it. We have Mongolian night.
We've got prime rib once a week, I mean....
Some fresh cod, some fresh haddock...
A never-ending free buffet!
I'll look down and I'll say, you know,
if I was in Newport this would be like a $60 meal!
It's a good meal for the crew every day.
It energizes them. It motivates them.
It also gives them something really to look forward to,
because we really put an extra effort into what we put together.
If there's one thing that is produced on every NOAA cruise,
it's data.
From surveys of fish stocks to remote sensing,
to the locating of shipwrecks,
massive amounts of data are mined on every trip made by every ship.
This information is the main objective of most missions,
and the proper management of the data
is the crucial function of NOAA's survey department.
You can think of it as an onboard scientist.
I'm responsible for all the data acquisition on a vessel.
NOAA ships host all manner of science teams,
each requiring various types of equipment and data collection methods.
NOAA survey technicians serve as the link between the scientists and the crew,
providing technical assistance,
maintaining scientific instruments,
and safeguarding the data they collect.
I do my daily maintenance of the sensors and monitoring the data quality.
As a survey tech you kind of have to be a jack of all trades
because you have to fix instruments on the deck
and know how to do fish sampling.
Most survey techs come in at a baseline having at least
two years of experience or at least an undergrad degree
in some form of science.
We do have hydrographic vessels in the NOAA fleet
where they are doing charting,
and you're able to start in there as an assistant survey tech.
With some simple training you'll be a member of a large department,
so it's much more on-the-job training.
Basically to identify shoals, obstructions, wrecks,
anything like that on the bottom,
areas that are mischarted.
And the whole purpose behind it
is for safe navigation of your commercial mariners.
There's a whole commercial industry that's out sailing;
if our charts aren't correct, if they're not updated
with the most accurate information that we can get there...
it's a tragedy.
If a ship goes aground, you're looking at not only the mariner's life,
but the effect that it would have on the fish and the marine life
from the pollution it would cause.
It's a perfect job for working on the water,
getting to see different places.
If you like equipment, things like that,
this is what you want to do.
Aboard NOAA's fleet of ships,
officers and scientists will come and go.
But critical to the success of every operation
are the ship's fulltime personnel,
the single greatest resource in the NOAA fleet -
the wage mariner.
Nobody does what NOAA does.
Every trip I come back learning something new.
It's a great opportunity and a great experience
and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
If you have any interest to going to sea,
working for NOAA would be an ideal opportunity.
I'm positive that this experience will open a lot of doors for me.
If we're going to continue to research our planet
and learn more about global climate change
and all these different things that are going on,
we're going to need some really good sailors
to go out there and retrieve that data.
So I see a bright future in the mariner community here in NOAA.
Knowing that I'm contributing to the larger body of scientific work that's out there,
I find that incredibly gratifying.
Being on a NOAA ship,
it's the intangibles that matter more than anything else.
It's not the paycheck,
it's not the steady employment,
it really is the science.
You get to be onboard with crews from National Geographic,
some of the preeminent scientists in the world doing cutting-edge studies.
Where else are you going to find that?
You won't.
You have a chance to be part of something bigger
than just commercial organization, and that's what NOAA's about.