Social Scientist

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center's Social Science Branch conducts applied economic and sociocultural research on the use and management of commercial and recreational fisheries, protected species resources, and marine ecosystems. Through its work, the Branch seeks to increase the net benefits derived by the nation from its regional endowment of renewable marine resources and to improve our understanding of underserved communities. The SSB conducts research relating to economic and socio-cultural dimensions and impacts of living marine resources management in the North Atlantic. This position will support the SSB and requires broad experience and knowledge of the connections between people and the coastal environment.

Duties:

• Support social science assessments of changes in the level and distribution of economic benefits and costs due to changes in ecosystem conditions, and management strategies
• Cost-benefit and social impact analyses of proposed management options, fisheries bycatch and discard issues, fisheries capacity issues, protected species issues, habitat protection restrictions, and offshore wind energy and aquaculture issues
• Assessments of benefits of trade-offs of various policy options
• Evaluations of the effects of allocation options between commercial and recreational sectors and within sectors (e.g., commercial fishery, for-hire, shore and private boat)
• Economic and social assessments that may be used to characterize the costs and benefits of fishery allocation decisions
• Identification of appropriate social science metrics and research methods for estimating metrics; and fishery performance indicators and measures
• Developing and implementing descriptive statistics to characterize economic and social performance of catch share and non-catch share programs
• Support and conduct assessments and research to characterize performance of catch share fisheries, including quota-managed fisheries
• Use community and census data to create fundamental profiles of fishing communities that include community-specific demographic, economic and fishery information
• Support oral history database by conducting and transcribing oral histories as well as identifying existing oral history collections
• Provide training and support to individuals developing oral history projects
• Examine social and economic impacts of management actions, disasters (e.g., oil spills, hurricanes, tsunamis, hypoxia events, red tide events), and offshore aquaculture and wind development on fishing communities and fishery participants
• Conduct basic field work; surveys of local fishing infrastructure; and archival research in local repositories (libraries, chambers of commerce, tourist bureaus)
• Conduct, code, and analyze open-ended interviews, including oral histories
• Conduct assessments of the vulnerability and resiliency of fishing communities; create, maintain, and/or update coastal community vulnerability and resilience metrics
• Support/conduct research to better understand the connections between seafood networks, markets, distribution systems, and nutrition policies; and their impact on regional fisheries

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in social science, sociology, economics, or a related field required; Master's degree is preferred
• A minimum of 2 years relevant, post-degree professional experience.
• Demonstrated understanding of survey development and scientific sampling for social surveys
• Training and/or demonstrated experience in statistics
• Experience with statistical software e.g., SPSS, R, or JMP
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, organizational skills and attention to detail
• Experience supporting a state or federal agency strongly preferred
• Ability to travel as needed to conduct surveys, field works, and attend conferences, workshops, etc. (estimate 10-15% travel)
• Ability to pass a National Agency Check (NACI) and maintain it throughout the duration of employment

CSS is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer who provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or genetic information. In addition to federal law requirements, CSS complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.