Spatial Fisheries Mgmt Modeling Support

Ocean Associates Inc. (OAI) is seeking an applicant to provide Spatial Fisheries Management Modeling support to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC), Conservation Biology (CB) Division in Seattle, WA. OAI is a Virginia corporation established in 2003 that provides consulting and technical services to the U.S. government, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the private sector.

We specialize in scientific program and project management, strategic planning, professional and technical services, and stakeholder engagement, supporting government contracts.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for the conservation and management of our Nation's living marine resources and their habitats. By developing high quality science and supporting an ecosystem-based approach to management, NMFS provides important services to the Nation, including sustainable fisheries, healthy ecosystems, safe seafood, and protected species recovery. In the Pacific Northwest Region of the US, the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) provides science in support of managing living marine resources along the US West Coast, including those that use interior watersheds that support anadromous fish such as salmon and steelhead.

The potential development of new ocean-use sectors (e.g., offshore aquaculture, oil and gas exploration, renewable energy, critical minerals) may alter the use of space in the ocean and the infrastructure of coastal ports along the US West Coast. New ocean uses create the need for a unique set of scientific research objectives to support NMFS' management mandates and inform responsible and sustainable development of new economic sectors.

One of the groups best poised to support this research is the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (CCIEA), an interdisciplinary research effort led by NMFS and fueled by many staff  CCIEA program's goal is to provide science support for ecosystem-based management of the California Current, the productive large marine ecosystem along the US West Coast. Because the effects from new development and activities will change over time, cross-cut multiple sectors, and span the full social-ecological system there is a need for strategic, ecosystem-scale science to inform decision makers and proactively deconflict ocean uses.

The CCIEA provides a framework and delivery system for co-developed, integrative science products to inform management decisions that intersect ocean-use communities.

At NMFS, a major question emerging from new offshore development and activity is: how will the population dynamics of commercial fisheries species change due to fisheries closures associated with areas designated for new development? More to the point, there is concern about how changes in population and ecosystem dynamics caused by new development will affect the reliability of decision support tools such as stock assessments, which underpin harvest advice to fisheries managers.

The focus of this position is to address these questions and concerns by improving knowledge around how new development will affect fisheries stocks and ecosystem dynamics, including fisheries and fishing communities.

The scope of this work is to lead activities and development of products that will improve our understanding of how new ocean-use sectors might affect NMFS scientific data collections, fisheries stocks, and fisheries stock assessment estimates. These activities and deliverables should result in better service to the public through analyses that inform potential impacts to scientific surveys, stock assessments, and harvest management advice.

Focal activities will build off of previous and ongoing analyses and include:
1) simulating population dynamics to iden