Shoreside Port Sampler and Fisheries Technician- Rice Rivers Center

Summary:

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is seeking applicants for the position of Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician to support the collection of biological data and fisheries statistics to inform state and federal management of the Atlantic Menhaden purse-seine fishery in Virginia and to provide technical support for ongoing fisheries research. This grant-funded, full-time position will work in conjunction with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC), and the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Commission (ASFMC). The position will be field-based and expected to report to work in Reedville, VA with regular visits to Weems, VA during the normal commercial fishing season, (May through December) for Atlantic Menhaden; regular visits to Richmond will be required to meet with the Supervisor. During the off-season months, the Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician will be expected to manage, sort and upload the acquired data collected during the field season as well as facilitate the potential digitization of daily logs collected by vessel captains.

All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes: comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave granted up front, generous tuition benefit, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more. Learn more about VCU’s benefits here.

Typical Duties

While representing Virginia Commonwealth University, the Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician primary responsibility will be to collect biological and catch-per-unit-effort data from the purse seine commercial reduction and bait harvest sectors of Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) during normal commercial fishing season (May through November). The Atlantic States Fisheries Management Commission (ASFMC) is responsible for managing commercial harvest of Atlantic Menhaden and requires ongoing biological and fisheries data to inform the Atlantic Menhaden stock status studies and biomass health. Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), Division of Fisheries Management is responsible for marine fisheries resource management in the Commonwealth of Virginia including stocks of Atlantic Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.

Following the methods as outlined in the NOAA NMFS Instructions for Menhaden Sampling Program (Revised July 2023) the Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician will collect mission-critical data related to offloading activities of commercial fishing vessels in Reedville and Weems, Virginia. The Shoreside Port Sampler will observe and report catch results, obtain copies of the Captains Daily Fishing Report (CDFR), collect and catalog biological samples (scales and otoliths), and prepare those samples for shipment on a required weekly basis. The Shoreside Port Sampler will enter and validate the Atlantic Menhaden CDFRs for both the bait and reduction fisheries; code, scan, and upload to secure cloud storage for quota monitoring. The NMFS protocol for the purse seine fishery includes:

For the reduction fishery, a minimum of 300 random samples per year with a goal of 15 samples per week (min of 10). Each Sample is 20 fish collected from the hold from the last school caught on the trip.

For the reduction fishery, sampling will occur daily during the season which typically begins in early May and runs through December.

For the bait fishery, samples will include an additional 74 random samples with the same criteria (based on Virginia’s sector allocation in Chapter 4 VAC 20-1270-10) from the ports of Weems and Reedville, VA.

Every two weeks, the incumbent will be expected to mail the weekly collected samples to the NOAA Beaufort Lab and the VCU Rice Rivers Center for processing and analysis.

The Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician will be required to work in industrial fish, landing, processing and offloading facilities with extensive time on docks/piers and must be comfortable with handling harvested fish, walking on uneven terrain and climbing on/off vessels. The position may require working after normal business hours and on weekends (not to exceed 40 hours per week) to ensure the adequate collection of samples and/or weekly reporting is delivered consistently and reliably.

Additionally, the Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician will provide technical support for ongoing research focused on biological conservation of anadromous clupeids (Alosa spp.) in Virginia waters and other species specific fisheries research, as requested. Specifically, the incumbent will be expected to conduct independent field studies of spawning timing and success, ecology of early life stages (ichthyoplankton), and quantify potential food resources (e.g. zooplankton). Efforts will emphasize field work in tidal rivers and laboratory studies at the Rice Rivers Center to identify, enumerate, and assess ichthyoplankton. The Shoreside Port Sampler/Fisheries Technician will also support ongoing research on Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virgininca) in support of conservation, restoration, replenishment and the commercial fishery

The VCU Rice Rivers Center is an academic research campus of Virginia Commonwealth University located on the James River in Charles City County. The Center conducts extensive fisheries-related research, with a focus on migratory species and the effects of non-native fishes on riverine and estuarine systems.