Research Position -- Fisheries Specialist

A Fisheries Specialist (Junior Specialist Title)

Contact:

Dr. A. Peter Klimley, Biotelemetry Laboratory, University of California, (530) 752-5830, and apklimley@ucdavis.edu.

A Fisheries Specialist (Junior Specialist Title) is needed to conduct telemetric studies of juvenile and adult green sturgeon over a period of two years, starting 1 July 2007, with funds provided to UC Davis from the California Department of Fish and Game/Calfed Bay-Delta Program. This person, under the supervision of a Postdoctoral Fellow, will monitor the movements of adults currently carrying individually coded ultrasonic beacons with an array of tag-detecting monitors situated along the length of the Sacramento River to identify their spawning grounds. The two will place depth-sensing transmitters on adult female sturgeon, follow them by boat using a portable receiver, and characterize the physical characteristics (flow speed, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, substrate type, and river geomorphology) of their holding sites. Juvenile sturgeon, captured by U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists in a fyke trap below the Red Bluff Diversion Dam (RBDD) and in nets deployed by the Specialist and Fellow in the Delta, will be tracked by automated monitors situated there, in the Benicia and Carquinez Straits, across the San Rafael and Bay Bridges, and across the Golden Gate. The two will oversee biologists of the Bureau of Reclamation in the rearing of postlarval juveniles, captured at RBDD, and tag and release them when the reach a suitable size for tracking in the Delta and Bay.

Applicants should have experience with field studies of fish biology. Of value in this position would be experience in: 1) telemetric techniques, 2) boat handling, and 3) fish husbandry.