Full-Time/Project Permanent 

Fish Biologist 3 – #05726-21

Fish Program – Fish Management 

111 Sherman St.

LaConnor, WA.98501

Anticipated start date is July 1, 2021 and the project is funded for 2-years.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has some of the most talented people in the natural resource field.  We celebrate and value diversity, appreciating that a workforce composed of those from different backgrounds and experiences creates an inclusive environment, strengthens positive relationships with the local community, and brings new perspectives and approaches to fulfilling the agency’s mission.

This position independently plans, develops, designs, and directs fisheries monitoring and assessments throughout WDFW Region 4, District 14, which includes the Nooksack, Samish, and Skagit River watersheds. Information gathered from monitoring and assessments is used to make in-season management action recommendations, season and regulation recommendations, and reports of harvest and encounters of both ESA and non-ESA listed fish species. The position will regularly collaborate and coordinate with intradepartmental and interdepartmental WDFW staff, resource comanagers, County and Federal officials, and the public stakeholders, to report observed and predicted catch, and to make informed decisions on resource issues that have an impact on a stock or stocks and their habitat.

KEY DUTIES INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO: 

Fisheries studies

Tasks include: 

• District specialist for monitoring freshwater fisheries for foodfish and gamefish.
  • Primarily freshwater but not necessarily exclusively.
  • Will mostly work in anadromous and non-anadromous streams and hydro reservoirs but may also participate in aspects of design and implementation of monitoring in other areas.
• Collaborate with agency staff on planned or emergent fisheries monitoring needs.
• Without supervision, design, plan, develop, implement, direct, and participate in statistically defensible fishery monitoring studies and assessments.
• Plan, direct, and adapt activities of staff for collection of fishing effort and catch
• Work with and organize collection of data coming in from numerous personnel spread over a large area.
• Analyze data and estimate numbers of target and incidental species caught.
• Report catch estimates to senior agency staff, comanagers, and constituents.
• Maintain line of communication with agency enforcement to keep them informed of fishery violations observed during the fishery.
• Annually report total handlings of ESA listed species designees.
• Assess efficacy of monitoring and design and evaluate potential tweaks or changes to the study design that could improve results of future creel studies and incorporate those results.
• Write or present verbal in-season and post season reports.

Fisheries harvest assessment (study); monitor fisheries and estimate effort and catch of directed and incidental species.

Tasks include: 

• Hire, train and supervise biologists and technicians necessary to perform statistically valid creels in one or more watersheds within District 14.
  • Example creels include:
    • Skagit winter steelhead catch and release fishery.
    • Skagit and Nooksack River spring Chinook fisheries.
    • Baker Lake sockeye fishery
  • Multiple concurrent creels may occur throughout the district so the biologist may have multiple subordinate biologists implementing creels at the same time but in different watersheds, or portions of watersheds, for any number of species.
• Plan, direct, and adapt activities of staff for collection of fishing effort and catch
• Organize collection of data coming in from numerous personnel spread over a large area.
• Facilitate data entry, review, edit, and finalization.
• Analyze data and estimate numbers of target and bycatch species caught.
• Report potential incidental encounter problems in season to senior agency staff.
• Maintain line of communication with agency enforcement to keep them informed of fishery violations observed during the fishery.
• Assess efficacy of monitoring and design methodologies to improve results of future creel studies and incorporate those results.
• Write and present verbal in-season and post season reports.
• Sample, and train subordinate staff to sample, and identify catch.
  • Sampling may include, fork length, sex, scales, CWT, PIT tag, Elastomer tag, and collecting tissues samples and or snouts.

Communicate and collaborate with district colleagues and HQ support staff 

Tasks include:

• Collaborate with other biologists in the home district, or beyond, as needed, to determine which fisheries studies are needed, and in design and implementation of planned or emergent fisheries monitoring needs.
• Communicate observations and estimates from fisheries with district biologist and other biologist colleagues with emphasis on communicating expectation of nearing, reaching, or exceeding encounter or harvest limits so appropriate in-season fishery management actions can be taken.
• Recommend in-season management actions to Regional and Statewide WDFW leadership staff.
• Recommend and/or critique seasons, and regulations for state fisheries.
• Acquire and maintain electronic data capture and entry devices.
  1. Work with IT staff and related database staff to design data capture and entry pages on electronic tablets or related devices.
  2. Working with IT, build system of near-real-time data upload to cloud or local based data storage areas.
• Working with WDFW Science and Management Research Scientists, collaborate on methods to increase efficiency and robustness of creel designs using latest scientific methods.
• Participate in design and review of WDFW public outreach media including designing webpages, and recommending media posts or news releases
• Collaborate and communicate with other fisheries monitoring/creel staff throughout WDFW (including in marine areas) to share ideas and experiences and cross train when able.
• Attend relevant conferences, webinars, presentations to stay up to date on emerging science from fisheries monitoring.

Represent WDFW and or District 14 Biologist in discussions and at meetings with comanaging tribes, State, Federal, County and hydropower utility biologists and/or stakeholders.

Tasks include: 

• Independently attend and participate in meetings that are primarily focused on issues related to fisheries and stock assessment or projects or proposals that may impact one or more life stages of salmonids including char.
• Assess and critically interpret content of discussions and determine how discussion topics will affect health and fitness or management of fish stocks.
• Provide expert input and professional opinion on fish habitat use, life history strategies, behaviors, and harvest opportunity and methods to guide decisions.
• Take notes and summarize meeting content to senior staff to incorporate into their decisions as applicable
• Participate in ongoing or follow up emails, voice and video calls, or meetings to work toward finding solutions and answers that benefit fish stocks and the community.
• Report impact and harvest levels to comanaging tribes, State, Federal, County and hydropower utility biologists and/or stakeholders as requested.

Reporting

Tasks include:

• Independently write, review, edit, and finalize:
  1. Study and/or activity protocols
  2. Periodic reports describing activities and observations from a set time period.
     • Distributed to comanaging tribes, federal authorities, and others.
  3. Season-end or year-end catch reports
     • Includes not limited to:
       • Chinook harvest and management reports
       • Steelhead harvest and management reports.
  4. Contributions to ESA reporting
     • Includes encounters, impacts and observations fish and possibly wildlife species.

Supervisor

Tasks include: 

• Hire, train, and supervise temporary and permanent employees.
  • Staff will include scientific technicians and fish and wildlife biologists.
• Independently plan and assign day to day activities of subordinate employees.
• Monitor and evaluate performance of employees and regularly mentor to keep employee skills and work quality as high as possible.
• Recommend discipline as necessary.
• Recommend and assign optional and mandatory training.
• Review, and correct (as needed) time sheets.
• Complete and review annual PDP’s with employees.
• Investigate and arbitrate conflicts arising between staff and seek common ground resolutions for simple disagreements or take corrective action if the cause of the situation is a performance issue.

Independently plan, develop, design, direct, and participate in fish stock assessments in the Skagit Basin. Participation in stock assessment is expected to be minimal.

Tasks include: 

• Stock assessment work could include marine salmon fry abundance surveys, and stream surveys for salmon, steelhead, and bull trout.
• May need to procure, distribute and maintain equipment and instruments.
• Hire, train, and supervise temporary and permanent staff as needed
• Develop, and design spreadsheets, databases, and models to maintain and analyze collected data.
• Train and direct subordinates on data entry and proofing of collected data.
• Organize and assess in-season data to estimate abundance and trends.
• Review and interpret estimates and generate reports of results.
• Meet with comanaging tribal biologists to review and analyze reports and findings, and address questions to come to agreement on finalization of estimates.

WDFW inter-program liaison. 

Tasks include: 

• Consult and collaborate with WDFW staff from other programs.
• Provide technical expertise and professional opinion.
• Review, comment, and suggest edits to documents created by other program staff.
• Respond to data requests from Habitat Biologists, Environmental Planners, Wildlife Biologists, Enforcement, and other staff.

Grant, budgets and purchasing

Tasks include: 

• Independently procure equipment and supplies to complete fisheries monitoring or assigned work.
• Maintain a WDFW purchasing card.

North of Falcon (NOF) Support

Tasks include:

• Attend North of Falcon season setting meetings as assigned.
• Support WDFW and regional staff during NOF by rapidly completing data requests.
• Due to the time constraints of NOF, facilitating this duty may require the incumbent to be periodically on call.

Other duties as assigned

Tasks include:

WORKING CONDITIONS:  

Work Setting, including hazards:  

• Work in all weather conditions, from dry and hot to extreme cold and snow.
• Office work may consist of long sedentary periods and eye strain from computer screens.
• Up to 14 hours daily in chest waders
• Will be required to perform low level flight duties in fixed wing or helicopter aircraft for assessment and monitoring activities.
• Hiking over very difficult terrain both in and out of moving water long distances while carrying gear. Boating in rivers, streams, and lakes and possibly marine areas.
• Hazards include strains, sprains, breaks, scratches, lacerations, infections, animal encounters and drowning.
• Must be comfortable in, on, and around swift water (streams and river).
• Must be comfortable and able to follow game and angler trails to remote sites in during early and late hours to find and interview anglers.

Schedule: 

• Work schedule is Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Night, weekend, and holiday hours will at times be required.
• Must be able to work highly unpredictable and irregular schedules at times to prosecute monitoring fisheries.
  1. For example, be available by phone to staff from 6AM to 10PM to handle emerging situations and act as check-in at the end of the day.  In this role, the incumbent must be able to drive to the work site if the situation warrants it.

Travel Requirements: 

• Includes overnight stays in hotels with air or surface travel for meetings and possibly camping for remote field work.
• Must be able to fly in small aircraft and helicopters to enumerate fishery effort.
• Must be able to drive extended periods to remote field sites or withstand periods of gridlock while navigating city environments.

 Customer Interactions: 

• Regular interaction with other WDFW and State biologists and researchers as well as tribal administration, biologists, and staff, County and Federal biologists, staff and researchers, and public utility staff and biologists.
• Position will frequently interact with the public at large and will be expected to remain calm and professional during tense and combative interactions with passionate opinionated resource users.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

AND

OR 

• Professional equivalent experience may substitute, year for year, for education requirement as long as that experience is in fish management and/or fish stock assessment.

Job knowledge and experience: 

• Ability to differentiate all life stages of pacific salmonids required.
• Must be comfortable working alone or with a partner in remote and isolated environments in all weather conditions and in swift moving water for periods up to 14 hours.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Excel.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Word.
• Ability to interact and maintain professionalism with colleagues, peers and the public regardless of intensity of interaction.
• Must be able to work in an office for long periods of time.
• Must have 3 or more years of experience directly supervising and directing subordinate staff.
• Must be able to locate, handle, and sample salmonid carcasses regardless of severity of state of decay.
• Must be able to effectively report and/or present results and resource information in writing or verbally.
• Must be comfortable in, on, and around swift water (streams and river).
• Must be comfortable and able to follow game and angler trails to remote sites in periods of low light or mid-day to find and interview anglers.
• Must be able to effectively report and/or present results and resource information in writing or verbally.

Preferred/Desired Qualifications

• Five or more years of professional experience in fish management or research preferred.
• Sport fishing experience, or experience working with sport fishers.
  1. Familiarity with sport fishing methods for salmon and trout, gear, and angler community would be very helpful for this position.
• Experience operating jet boats/sleds
• Experience using “R”
• Enjoys working on computers and comfortable learning new software.
• Familiarity or experience working with statistics
• Familiarity of principles of scientific study design

Please note: Failure to follow the instructions below may lead to disqualification. In order to successfully apply for this position you MUST complete your profile at www.careers.wa.gov and attach the following to your profile before completing the online application:

• A cover letter describing how you meet the qualifications of this position (Generic cover letter will not be accepted).
• A current resume

• Three professional references. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: 

The Department of Fish and Wildlife’s priority during the Covid-19 health crisis is to keep our staff, candidates, and the public safe.  We are hiring and encourage you to apply to open positions.  Many of our staff are currently working from home; we have transitioned to a virtual recruitment process, to include web-based interviews.

JOIN THE WDFW TEAM:

Learn about our agency and the perks of working for WDFW!

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has some of the most talented people in the natural resource field.  We celebrate and value diversity, appreciating that a workforce composed of those from different backgrounds and experiences creates an inclusive environment, strengthens positive relationships with the local community, and brings new perspectives and approaches to fulfilling the agency’s mission. We value demonstrated skill in living WDFW values of professionalism, accountability, empathy, integrity, service, and respect.

WDFW employees may be eligible for the following:

Medical/Dental/Vision for employee & dependent(s), Public Employees Retirement System (PERS),   Vacation, Sick, and other Leave, 11 Paid Holidays per year, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Tuition Waiver,   Long Term Disability & Life Insurance, Deferred Compensation Programs, Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP),  Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA), Employee Assistance Program, Commute Trip Reduction Incentives (Download PDF reader), Combined Fund Drive, SmartHealth.

WAFWP:

This position is in the bargaining unit represented by the Washington Association of Fish & Wildlife Professionals and is subject to the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the State of Washington, Department of Fish & Wildlife, and the Washington Association of Fish & Wildlife Professionals.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Employer

VETERAN PREFERENCE NOTICE: 

To take advantage of veteran preference, please do the following:

• Subject line should include recruitment number, position and Vet (for example: #10155 Biologist 1 – Veteran)
• Include your name as it appears on your application in careers.wa.gov

MILITARY SPOUSE PREFERENCE NOTICE: 

To take advantage of military spouse preference, please do the following:

• Notify us of your military spouse status by email at RecruitmentTeam@dfw.wa.gov. 
• Subject line should include recruitment number, position and MS (for example: #10155 Biologist 1 – MS)
• Include your name as it appears on your application in careers.wa.gov

Note: Please blackout any PII (personally identifiable information) data such as social security numbers. For further information, please contact us at recruitmentteam@dfw.wa.gov

 As part of WDFW’s efforts to advance respectful and inclusive work environments, the Agency expects inclusivity as part of our professional interactions and communications.  Therefore, we want to ensure that all individuals feel welcome, are treated fairly and respectfully.  All staff are empowered to fully contribute to serving their work unit, Agency, and the citizens of Washington.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is an equal opportunity employer.  We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status and are encouraged to apply. 

 Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may call (360) 902-2276 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (800) 833-6388.

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