For more information, please follow this link: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/washington/jobs/3599392/viable-salmonid-population-vsp-technician-scientific-technician-2-permanent

Salary– $2,864.00 – $3,701.00 Monthly

Salmonid Viable Salmonid Population (VSP) – Steelhead, Chinook, and Chum.  Tasks include, but are not limited to: 

• Identify and enumerate adult salmonids (live and dead) and redds.
• Collects biological data from live, and dead, adult fish and carcasses.
• Essential member of core snorkeling team for the weir project.
• Walk 4-6 miles per day over rough and uneven terrain along remote streams and rivers and raft whitewater conditions with oar-powered cata-raft boats up to class 3 and class 3+ rapids.
• Installation, removal, maintenance, and operation of adult monitoring weirs, traps, and equipment.
• Captures, identifies, enumerates, handles, and tags/marks salmonids (live adults).
• Collects biological data from live adult fish and carcasses.
• Collect broodstock for hatchery programs.
• Participate in adult seining and trapping activities to capture broodstock and to accomplish a mark/recapture study design to estimate population size of several adult chum salmon spawning populations.

Data collection, entry, and management.  Tasks include, but are not limited to: 

• Accurately record and/or proof data collected during field activities.
• Enter and proof data that has been collected into established spreadsheets and/or databases (e.g., Traps, Weirs, Surveys (TWS)).

WORKING CONDITIONS: 

• Work Setting, including hazards:    
  1. Approximately 80% of the work is fieldwork – fieldwork includes walking long distances through rough and heavily vegetated environments, working outdoors and exposure to hot and cold conditions and often with wet slippery footing.
  2. Must be able to frequently lift (with or without assistance) large, live fish and fish carcasses (typically 30 – 70 lbs.) four feet above the ground repetitively.  Repetitively carry non-motorized pontoon boats and weir panels/components that weigh up to 70 pounds short distances over rough terrain.
  3. Walking up to 6 miles per day over rough terrain under adverse weather conditions.  Physical ability to board and disembark from vessels at a dock or from in-situ settings such as a rocky beach in turbulent weather or storms.
  4. Safely and competently operate non-motorized pontoon cata-rafts in whitewater conditions up to class 3 rapids and sample spawned out salmon carcasses with very strong odors.
  5. Includes snorkeling in cold, fast-flowing/whitewater conditions, and walking over rough terrain in varying environmental conditions.
• Schedule:   
  1. 24/7 non-scheduled including weekends and holidays – highly variable schedule.
• Tools and Equipment: 
  1. Towing vehicles, normal hand and carpentry tools, winches, pulleys, and blocks, cata-rafts, 4×4 vehicles, 200’ beach seines, Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT) tag injector, PIT tag reader, Coded Wire Tag (CWT) detector, handheld data loggers and GPS units, scales, computer and possibly a palmtop computer, motorboats (typically 18-21’ jet-pump powered boats), non-motorized pontoon cata-rafts, and DO meters, flow meters, and most importantly the brain.
• Customer Interactions:          
  1. Interacts with landowners in the field; discusses objectives of projects and intent of surveys being completed in the area.   Landowners’ pets and wildlife encounters are other potential field encounters.
  2. May interact with personnel from other State and/or Federal agencies.

Qualifications

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

          Or 

Please Note: College course work involving major study in biology, zoology, fisheries, chemistry, natural sciences, or closely allied field will substitute, year for year, for experience, provided the course work includes at least six semester or nine quarter hours of natural science classes.

Knowledge of: 

• Adult trapping techniques including resistance board and fixed panel type adult fish weirs.
• Fish marking/tagging techniques and protocols.
• Fishery monitoring and sampling.
• Commercial fishing gear types and methods.
• Coded Wire Tag (CWT) and Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT) tag detector operation.

Ability to: 

• Identify adult anadromous salmonid redds.
• Identify all adult salmonid species found within the Lower Columbia River and its tributaries.
• Complete intermediate functions in Microsoft Excel and Access

Certifications/Licenses: 

Special Requirements/Conditions of Employment: 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Ability to operate a motorboat using propeller and/or jet pump propulsion.
• Basic skills in aluminum and steel welding, bending, and cutting.
• Basic carpentry skills.
• Intermediate skills with Microsoft Excel and Access.