Passive Acoustic Monitoring Technician

at  Scottish Government

Overview:
Do you want to play an important role in tackling the climate change emergency by helping to enable the sustainable development of offshore wind in Scotland?

OCTOBER START DATE

The Scottish Government is preparing for the implementation of a new HR and Finance platform and, as a result, some job offers will be subject to an October 2024 start date at the earliest. This will be confirmed as your application progresses.
The Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government is looking for a Passive Acoustic Monitoring Technician who has practical skills to help carry out programmes of scientific research in Scottish seas. Ideally you will have a responsible attitude to health and safety and would like to go to sea to participate in marine mammal passive acoustic monitoring surveys on board Marine Directorate research vessels.
In January 2022, Crown Estate Scotland announced the successful applicants to the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round to commence a new phase of offshore wind farm construction in Scottish waters helping Scotland meet its Net Zero targets, become carbon neutral by 2045 and tackle the climate emergency. The Scottish Government is responsible for identifying where the ScotWind projects will be located, administering the related offshore planning consents, and ensuring that projects are delivered in an environmentally sustainable manner. The Renewables and Ecology Team (R&E) in the Marine Directorate provides specialist scientific advice to regulators and policy makers to support this.
The R&E team currently has around 25 staff who provide advice within government on the potential environmental impacts of marine energy on key receptors including birds, marine mammals, fish and fisheries, benthic habitats, and diadromous fish. Our specialists also provide advice on other Scottish Government policy priorities, such as marine protected area management and regulation of other marine activities.
This is a permanent post to help us to deliver marine mammal bioacoustics research projects to improve the evidence base required for the sustainable development of Scotland’s blue economy, with a particular focus on the ScotWind offshore wind energy leasing round. You will be responsible for setting up and deploying moorings with acoustic recording equipment, as well as maintaining the datasets that are produced. There will also be a requirement for you to undertake sea going fieldwork.
Whilst we anticipate the role will be focussed on issues related to offshore wind, we operate a flexible resourcing policy within the Marine Directorate and as such you may be required to work on other areas of high priority work as required.

Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the maintenance, setup, deployment and recovery of static, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) equipment used in marine mammal research, working alongside research scientists and project leaders and playing a key role in the technical aspects of delivery of applied research projects related to marine renewable energy
• Participate in seagoing fieldwork from Marine Scotland’s research vessels Scotia and Alba na Mara, and from chartered vessels
• Work with colleagues to assist in the development of safe and robust protocols and procedures for data collection and field equipment management
• Download, collate and store data from research projects into databases to enable efficient data sharing and subsequent analysis

• Contribute to the maintenance, setup, deployment and recovery of static, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) equipment used in marine mammal research, working alongside research scientists and project leaders and playing a key role in the technical aspects of delivery of applied research projects related to marine renewable energy
• Participate in seagoing fieldwork from Marine Scotland’s research vessels Scotia and Alba na Mara, and from chartered vessels
• Work with colleagues to assist in the development of safe and robust protocols and procedures for data collection and field equipment management
• Download, collate and store data from research projects into databases to enable efficient data sharing and subsequent analysi