Oferta compartida por Cristina
Position available: Marine researcher
Location: Flexible
Duration: Full Time contract for 12 months with opportunity to renew
Organization description
Pristine Seas is the National Geographic Society’s flagship marine
conservation initiative that seeks to explore, document, and protect vital ocean
areas. The team is composed of scientists, conservationists, filmmakers, and
expedition, operations, communications and policy experts based in Washington,
DC, and other locations worldwide. Over the next eight years, we will work globally
with local and Indigenous communities, governments, and partners to help
establish new marine protected areas (MPAs) and catalyze the global community to
protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030.
Position description
Decades of scientific research have shown the multiple benefits that MPAs
can provide for marine biodiversity, the wellbeing of coastal communities, and
humanity at large. Yet, the designation and implementation of MPAs is often
hindered by lack of robust, practical, and locally relevant information to quantify
these benefits and identify the locations where benefits would be greatest. To
address this issue, Pristine Seas has worked for several years with scientists and
organizations around the world to develop novel frameworks, models, and datasets
to provide decision makers and stakeholders with holistic and science-based
insights to make well informed decisions1 . We are seeking a passionate and self-
motivated researcher to join the Pristine Seas science team to apply and expand on
these methods and provide decision makers with the relevant information to
advance the designation of new MPAs.
Key responsibilities
The researcher will work individually and as part of a team to:
• Quantify local and global benefits of MPAs including biodiversity
conservation, fisheries productivity, carbon sequestration, and nature-basedourism, for the countries and regions where Pristine Seas is actively working
in.
• Conduct spatial analyses at different scales to identify the most important
areas in a country or region of interest that - if protected - would yield the
biggest benefits.
• Characterize and analyze the extent and magnitude of threats to critical
marine ecosystems and inform the potential tradeoffs between conservation
and status-quo.
• Produce reports for decision makers and present results to various audiences.
• Help develop a robust data management system for Pristine Seas.
Skills and Experience
• Ability to understand the big picture and overall goal yet deliver on details
• Excellent analytical, research, organizational, and writing skills
• At least 5 years of experience in reproducible research and data science
• Graduate level education in marine science and conservation or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience working with Geographic Information Systems
(GIS)
• Proficiency in R and SQL programming languages and the use of version
control (git)
• Familiarity with satellite-based tracking technology to monitor fishing
activity at sea
• Ability to work independently and as a team member
Compensation
Competitive and commensurate with the level of experience.
How to apply
Email Enric Sala (esala@ngs.org) with a one-page cover letter, and CV/resume
