Salary: $17-21/hour
Position Announcement: Field and lab technician (short term)
Description
The Prince William Sound Science Center (www.pwssc.org), a non-profit research and education institution located on the shores of Prince William Sound in Cordova, Alaska, is seeking a field and lab technician for a fisheries research position studying the interaction between juvenile Pacific salmon and Pacific herring in Prince William Sound.
Duties
Serve as a technician on research cruises involving sampling fishes, plankton, and oceanographic conditions in Prince William Sound and be responsible for processing samples in the lab. A successful candidate should have experience performing scientific work at sea, the willingness and ability to work under challenging weather conditions, and familiarity with a variety of field and lab methods used in fishery science and oceanography.
Term
Beginning April 2023 and lasting 6 months, including approximately 4-5 separate research cruises during May-July and lab work extending through September.
Background
Prince William Sound (PWS) is located in the northeast corner of the Pacific at 60° N and includes an intricate network of maritime glaciers, rain forests, offshore islands, barrier islands, wetlands, and freshwater and marine systems. PWS has 4900 km of shoreline and is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains that reach 4,300 m and contain the most extensive system of tidewater glaciers in North America. Most of the land area is in or adjacent to the Chugach National Forest. Of the five PWS communities, only Valdez and Whittier have highway access to the main road system. Access to Cordova is by boat or plane. The community is served regularly by Alaska Marine Highway System ferries and an airport that receives daily commercial airline traffic. Commercial salmon fisheries are the cornerstone of the local economy.
This is a project that is part of the Gulf Watch Alaska Long Term Research and Monitoring Program (gulfwatchalaska.org) supported by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. Since its inception in February 2012, the program has sustained long-term time series of data about the EVOS-affected regions of the Gulf of Alaska.
Responsibilities and Qualifications
A successful candidate will have experience in both field and lab settings. The technician will be responsible for carrying out field sampling involving a variety of methods, including trawling, plankton collections, CTD sampling, and field processing of biological samples (fish and plankton). This individual will also be responsible for carrying out lab work, including identifying and enumerating zooplankton and processing fish samples for diet description and calorimetric analyses. Lab work will also involve sample preparation for further analyses at other labs (DNA barcoding, stable isotopes, and origin determination from otoliths). The technician should be capable and willing to work in remote locations and in rough seas. The work will require great attention to detail and an ability to work collaboratively and cooperatively with vessel captains, other technicians, and scientists. A successful candidate should also have some experience using computer software for data entry and data processing.
Applicant must be authorized to work in the United States for any U.S. employer.
Salary and benefits: Salary is $17-21/hour, dependent on experience. Unemployment insurance and workers compensation are included.
Application Process
To be considered, please submit a cover letter, a résumé, and the names of three references with their contact information via email to Pete Rand, Prince William Sound Science Center, prand@pwssc.org.
Review of applications will begin January 31, 2023.
Positions are open until filled.
PWSSC does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, marital status, or mental or physical disability.