The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is seeking a Fishery Officer (Stock Assessment) to join their team located in Victoria, Seychelles in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) within the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division (NFI).

In close coordination with senior management, the Fishery Officer (Stock Assessment) will lead and coordinate the stock assessment services required by the Commission and provide timely advice, analysis, reporting and general support to the IOTC Secretariat.

Key Functions

• Plans and leads components of multidisciplinary teams, leads and/or participates on Organization-wide, cross-divisional committees, project teams and working groups, and/or provides specialized expertise in technical networks and/or international technical policy and standard setting bodies.
• Develops technical, analytical, monitoring and reporting frameworks, and related methodologies, tools, systems and databases, etc. to support the planning, implementation/delivery and monitoring of programmes of work, projects, products and/or services.
• Designs and conducts research, data collection, validation, analysis and/or reporting activities to support the development of technical standards, international instruments, innovative approaches and strategies, new tools, technologies, technical reports/publications, and/or policy proposals as well as the provision of technical/policy/ specialist/advice and expertise.
• Responds to country requests for technical and policy assistance, provides technical advice, assistance and solutions to Decentralized Offices and provides technical backstopping to field projects.
• Collaborates in, provides technical backstopping to, and ensures the quality/effectiveness of, capacity development and knowledge sharing activities within Member countries such as policy support, organizational development and individual learning events including preparation of related information, learning materials, on-line tools.
• Promotes international cooperation/advocates best practices, supports increased policy dialogue and provides technical expertise at international/intergovernmental meetings.
• Participates in resource mobilization activities in accordance with the FAO Corporate Strategy.

Specific Functions

• Analyses catch and associated datasets (Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE), length composition, tagging, etc.) using population modeling approaches, as directed by the IOTC Scientific Committee, to describe and quantify trends for IOTC fisheries and to develop fishery indicators.
• Undertakes stock assessments for the IOTC stocks using integrated statistical catch-at-age models (i.e. Stock Synthesis III) or data-limited methods, under the guidance of the IOTC Science working parties, to estimate the current status of IOTC stocks and the impacts of fishing upon them.
• Reviews and provides constructive criticism on all stock assessment papers and other analysis in support of stock assessments for IOTC science Working Parties.
• Leads and supports capacity building initiatives agreed to by the IOTC and upon request by IOTC Contracting Parties, relevant to these duties and responsibilities.
• Utilizes new methods in fisheries stock assessment science and employs a broad knowledge of mathematical, statistical and modelling techniques, including demonstrated programing skills in high-level statistical languages such as R.

Requirements:

• Advanced university degree in fisheries science, mathematics or similar field (core focus on fisheries stock assessments).
• Seven years of relevant experience in fishery stock assessment, preferably with experience in data poor fisheries, as well as advanced quantitative modelling methods.
• Working knowledge (proficient - level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate - level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

The Fisheries Division (NFI) is responsible for the economic, social, institutional, governance and policy aspects of FAO's activities related to fisheries and aquaculture and their development, with particular emphasis on human well-being, food security and poverty reduction; post-harvest utilization, marketing and trade with due regard to the protection of the environment, food security and well-being of fishing communities; collection, compilation, validation, trend analysis and dissemination of the best available and up-to-date fishery statistics and for the dissemination of FAO's information on all aspects of world fisheries and aquaculture.