Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences - AAS-T - WWU-NWIC Articulation
The Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences Program prepares students for employment in a variety of fisheries occupations with emphasis on the transfer articulation of credits to Western Washington University (WWU) & Northwest Indian College (NWIC) from Bellingham Technical College (BTC).
The program offers an Associate of Applied Science Transfer degree to the WWU BA in Environmental Studies and BA in Geography. The Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Program gives students experience in biological studies with state and private agencies.
Students work with smolt traps, spawner surveys, data collection, scale and otolith samples, and water quality. This field experience provides practical work for the instructional “laboratory.” These valuable experiences compliment the classroom theory and related instruction components.
The program operates in partnership with regional, tribal and statewide industries as well as Regional Enhancement Associations.
Employment Information
Data are provided on a program (not credential) level
66%1 / 77%3 BTC graduate placement rate
$43,852 starting annual wage2
$52,020 average annual wage2
$64,445 potential annual wage2
- Employment and Wage Data Sources
1Employment data come from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and reflect WA/OR employment for students enrolled at BTC between 2016-17 and 2018-19. Students are included in the employment rate if they left with a credential. Rates are not shown for programs with fewer than 10 students meeting the above criteria.
2Wage data come from Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) 2020 Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates (Washington State wage) and reflect 2015-2018 employment. Wage data represent occupations that BTC faculty have identified as the most relevant career paths for program graduates. Note that these wages reflect employees with varying educational levels/credentials. For cases in which multiple occupations have been identified by faculty, a weighted percentile is calculated using each occupation’s percentile wage and employment size estimate. Wages are not shown for programs for which occupations do not meet the ESD’s minimum thresholds for publishing. If the program has wage data from the Washington SBCTC that involves shift work, these ESD wages reflect the same number of hours used in the annual wage calculation. Starting wage = 25th percentile, median wage = 50th percentile, wage potential = 75th percentile.
3Additional employment rates are provided for programs with faculty who maintain their own employment records of students who graduated between 2015-16 and 2017-18 and who were employed in their field of study within 9 months of graduation. These additional, faculty-provided rates are particularly important for programs that tend to have graduates employed outside of WA and OR. Note that due to lack of available data, rates may represent fewer than 3 years of graduates.
Estimated Program Costs