Predoctoral position in Seabirds at REDUCE project

Fisheries can have detrimental impacts on seabirds due to their interactions with fishing vessels. Overfishing and fishery discards pose significant challenges for seabird populations. Seabirds often fall victim to unintentional bycatch as they become entangled in fishing gear, leading to devastating consequences for their populations. In fact, seabirds are among the most endangered bird groups, with nearly half of all species experiencing population declines. Therefore, understanding seabird-fishery interactions is crucial for devising effective conservation strategies.

Innovative technologies, such as light-level geolocators, GPS tracking, bird-borne marine radar detectors, accelerometers, and combined AIS or VMS tracking systems for vessels, offer new opportunities to study seabird-fishery interactions on a broad spatiotemporal scale. This PhD aims to identify key areas of interaction, map illegal fishing activities, and inform targeted conservation measures. Recommendations from this research can guide policymakers in implementing regulations to mitigate bycatch, reduce discards, and protect seabird populations. Ultimately, our findings aim to contribute to the evaluation of fisheries management policies and promote sustainable fishing practices.

Specific objectives of this PhD include:

(1) Investigating interactions between shearwaters and fishing vessels across large spatial and temporal scales.

(2) Identifying potential illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.

(3) Comparing different techniques for detecting seabird-fishery encounters, including light-level geolocators, bird-borne radar detectors combined with raw or gridded AIS data, or seabird movement data alone.

Gross salary per year: 17.823,96 €