Dear list, Please find enclosed a post-doc offer in France. Please email your curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement to: [email protected] applications must be submitted to this e-mail address only.
L. Postdoctoral Research Opportunity: Title: Modeling spatio-temporal changes in abundance of tropical tunas from purse seiners catch-per-unit-effort Ref: Catch, Effort, and eCOsystem impacts of FAD-fishing (CECOFAD) Project CONTEXT AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION Context: The research will be conducted within the European Research project “Catch, Effort, and eCOsystem impacts of FAD-fishing” which aims to improve our understanding of the use of fish-aggregating devices (FAD) in purse seine tuna fisheries on open-sea ecosystems. Project Duration: 18 months Place: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR EME Centre de Recherche Halieutique Méditerranéenne et Tropicale, Avenue Jean Monet, BP 171 34203 Sète – France Conditions: • Around 2.150 euros per month (gross salary). • Laptop, per diem, travel and consumables costs incurred during the project will be funded. Expected Project Start Date: March 2014 Project Description: The relationship between Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) and abundance is central to stock assessment models. Changes in this relationship will ultimately result in changes in scientific diagnostic and associated management advice. Considering the lack of fishery-independent information in tuna fisheries, commercial data have been traditionally used to compute CPUE and derive spatio-temporal indices of abundance in stock assessments. Nominal efforts are usually standardized to account for difference among vessels, areas, seasons, and years. However, final estimates of standardized CPUES remain generally close to nominal values. There are two possible reasons for this: (1) increasing fishing efficiency through improvements of fishing gears which can strongly modify the relationship between CPUE and abundance over time and (2) the spatio-temporal dimension of fishing activities and resources. Non-accounting for these aspects in the standardization process may severely bias the estimates of abundance indices. Tropical tuna purse seine fisheries capture different species and size of tunas. Large yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), and in some strata skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), are caught in free-swimming schools, while skipjack and juveniles of yellowfin and bigeye (Thunnus obesus) are mainly associated with natural or artificial floating objects. In the traditional tuna purse seine fishery (characterized by free-swimming schools and natural floating objects), the fishing effort was expressed as searching time, i.e., the daylight hours devoted to the detection of tuna schools minus the setting times. While this simple definition may be criticized even for free-swimming schools sets (e.g., due to the non-random distribution of fishing effort, the increase in fishing power over the years, etc) drifting artificial fish aggregating devices (FAD) equipped with electronic devices have broken the link between searching time and effective fishing effort for FAD sets. Remote detection of satellite-tracked FADs often allows fishers to move directly towards a buoy, sometimes at night, avoiding or significantly reducing search time. JOB DESCRIPTION The candidate will explore innovative statistical methods to support the integration of FAD-fishing effort in tropical tuna stocks assessments and by focusing on the different spatio-temporal scales that affect tuna abundance and availability to fishing. Special attention should be paid on characteristics such as the increase in fishing efficiency of purse seiners over years, non-random distribution of the fishing effort and the fact that tunas are migrating species. Bayesian approaches such as hierarchical generalized linear models appear as one of the appropriate tool for addressing such issues. The candidate will work closely with tropical tuna fishery scientists and participate to the Working Groups of tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) to ensure that the project outcomes can be adopted in stock assessment meetings. The candidate is expected to publish the results of his/her research in tRFMOs scientific documents as well as in peer-reviewed journals. Research Environment: The successful candidate will join a dynamic group of researchers at the IRD – UME EME center in Sete (France). He/she will benefit greatly from international collaboration through involvement in two Working groups with tuna experts from IRD, IEO and AZTI and stakeholders from EU purse seiner tuna owner companies. The candidate will have access to state of the art equipment and facilities. The research project will be funded by EU DG Mare (call MARE/2012/24). REQUIREMENTS Requirements/Qualifications: Interested candidates should hold a PhD in a cognate discipline e.g. Fisheries or Statistic. Candidates with a PhD in a related discipline such as Quantitative ecology (e.g., focused on abundance estimates of migrating species: birds, mammals, plankton) will be also considered. Candidates should possess excellent level in spatio-temporal modeling (e.g., GLMM, and Bayesian models: CART, INLA), technical computer skills (particularly in R, BUGS or equivalent), and knowledge in Data base management, as demonstrated by their previous PhD research projects or work experience. Knowledge of French, Spanish and English is suitable. Scholarship Application Procedure: Applicants should submit their curriculum vitae and a personal statement. The personal statement should be divided as follows: 1. The first section should: a) Explain why you have chosen to candidate to a fishery research program, b) Demonstrate your qualities/skills for undertaking a postdoctorate research program. 2. In the second section: c) Outline how your previous experience and academic background make you a suitable candidate for CECOFAD. Application Closing Date: January 20, 2014 CONTACTS Please email your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement to: [email protected] Applications must be submitted to this e-mail address only. For further information on CECOFAD please contact among the following list of participants: Dr. Daniel Gaertner at [email protected], Dr. Nicolas Bez at [email protected], Dr. Emmanuel Chassot at [email protected], Dr. Hilario Murua at [email protected], Dr. Maria Soto at [email protected]
