Evaluate Seaweed Farmer candidates across 4 weighted areas: hands-on competence, safety discipline, fault finding, and reliability and conduct. Hands-on competence leads at 35%, so check hands-on command of longline setup: helical or mushroom anchor placement, backbone tensioning, buoy spacing, seeding twine or spool deployment, and winch-assisted harvest from a small workboat. Use the rubric to compare role-specific evidence consistently.
For hands-on competence, look for evidence the candidate names species farmed (Saccharina, Alaria, Gracilaria), line metres managed, seeding dates, and wet tonnes landed per season. For safety discipline, look for evidence the candidate describes specific abort criteria (wind, swell, ice), holds boating or drill-conductor credentials, and recounts a trip they cancelled.
Apply the written 1–5 anchors to every answer, record the evidence behind each rating, and use the factor weights to reach a consistent overall assessment.
Complete evaluation framework
What to assess and how to score it
Review the evidence signals before interviewing. Then use the anchored descriptions—not instinct alone—to choose the score that best matches each answer.
01
Evaluation factor
Hands-on competence
35% weight
Check hands-on command of longline setup: helical or mushroom anchor placement, backbone tensioning, buoy spacing, seeding twine or spool deployment, and winch-assisted harvest from a small workboat.
Evidence to listen for
Names the equipment, materials, and tolerances they work to
Can describe a job start to finish without hand-waving the hard parts
Holds the tickets, licences, or certifications the work requires, and they are current
Knows what they are not qualified to touch
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Cannot describe the work concretely; lacks required tickets or licences.
2
Needs Improvement
Basic familiarity; needs supervision on routine tasks.
3
Satisfactory
Competent on standard work; slower or unsure on unfamiliar jobs.
4
Very Good
Skilled and independent across the normal range of the role.
5
Excellent
Names species farmed (Saccharina, Alaria, Gracilaria), line metres managed, seeding dates, and wet tonnes landed per season.
02
Evaluation factor
Safety discipline
30% weight
Probe cold-water safety habits: PFD and immersion suit use, man-overboard drills, winch and line pinch-point control, vessel licensing, and weather call thresholds before going out.
Evidence to listen for
Treats procedure as protection rather than paperwork
Can describe a time they stopped work and why
Knows the specific hazards of this trade and the controls for each
Reports near misses instead of hiding them
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Casual about safety; describes shortcuts with pride.
2
Needs Improvement
Follows procedure when watched; cannot name the hazards that matter.
3
Satisfactory
Sound safety habits; less certain on unfamiliar hazards.
4
Very Good
Safety is instinctive; can describe stopping work over a real concern.
5
Excellent
Describes specific abort criteria (wind, swell, ice), holds boating or drill-conductor credentials, and recounts a trip they cancelled.
03
Evaluation factor
Fault finding
20% weight
Explore troubleshooting of crop and gear failures: biofouling and epiphyte loads, blade shedding, sinking backbones, chafed shackles, nursery contamination, and low sporophyte settlement on twine.
Evidence to listen for
Has a method for narrowing a fault rather than swapping parts
Reads schematics, manuals, or error codes and acts on them
Knows when to escalate rather than guess
Can describe a fault that took real work to find
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Parts-swapper; no diagnostic method.
2
Needs Improvement
Fixes symptoms; cannot explain how they found the cause.
3
Satisfactory
Solid on familiar faults; less structured on new ones.
4
Very Good
Clear systematic method with a real hard-fault story.
5
Excellent
Traces a failed line or nursery batch to root cause (depth, nutrients, temperature, hardware) and states the corrective change.
04
Evaluation factor
Reliability and conduct
15% weight
Assess dependability across the seasonal cycle: lease and permit paperwork, harvest logs, cold-chain and food-safety handling for buyers, and coordination with hatcheries, processors, and crew.
Evidence to listen for
Turns up, on time, prepared
Handles shift work, callouts, or travel as the role requires
Documents work so the next person can pick it up
Deals with customers or site staff professionally
Five-point scoring guide
1
Poor
Unreliable attendance; unprofessional on site.
2
Needs Improvement
Inconsistent; documentation is an afterthought.
3
Satisfactory
Dependable; paperwork is adequate.
4
Very Good
Consistently reliable, documents well, professional with customers.
5
Excellent
Shows kept records, met harvest windows and buyer specs, and worked steadily through winter outplanting and spring harvest crunch.
Evidence-led prompts
Interview questions for a Seaweed Farmer
Use these prompts to surface evidence for the weighted factors above and compare candidates against the same role-specific criteria.
01
What experience do you have in aquaculture or marine farming?
02
Have you run a seaweed farm yourself, and what did the days involve?
03
Can you describe a farming project you were part of and what you learned?
04
How familiar are you with different seaweed species and their growth cycles?
