Closing: 31 March 2017

Opportunities have been circulated to us for two PhD candidates to work on the economic, social and biological values of small scale fisheries in Western Australia. One candidate will have training in fisheries economics or fisheries socioeconomics and one in the biological or environmental aspects of fisheries.

Job ad details:

Murdoch University is looking for two motivated PhD candidates to join a team working on a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation project entitled “Golden Fish; evaluating and optimising the biological, social and economic returns of small-scale fisheries”. The project will investigate the social and economic values generated by recreational and commercial fishing for participants and local communities based on case-studies of two iconic estuarine fisheries in Western Australia, i.e. Blue Swimmer Crabs and Black Bream. Benefit-cost analysis will be employed to estimate the potential change in biological, social and economic value that release programs (restocking/stock enhancement) could provide. This project is highly topical given the increasing number of release programs occurring across Australia and lack of information on the social and economic values of fisheries in Western Australia.

The specific objectives of the project include:

Evaluation of the social values of recreational and commercial fishing, beliefs associated with release programs and attitudes to fisheries management options.
Estimation of the economic value of the recreational and commercial sector of the two fisheries.
Use of biological models to predict the change in abundance of target species following a hypothetical release program.
Benefit-cost analysis to determine the change in the biological, social and economic returns that a range of release programs could provide.
These PhD projects will be supervised by Professor Neil Loneragan, Dr James Tweedley and Dr Michael Hughes (School of Veterinary and Life Science) and Professor Malcolm Tull (School of Business and Governance).

We are seeking one candidate with training in fishery economics or fishery socio-economics and a second candidate with relevant background in biological/environmental/social science. Applicants are required to have First Class Honours (or equivalent) and both international students with strong academic backgrounds and domestic (Australian/New Zealand citizen) students are encouraged to apply.

Interested applicants should send their CV, along with a brief (max. 1 page) summary of their relevant qualifications and interest in the project, stating which area of the project they are interested in, and contact details of two academic referees, to Dr James Tweedley (j.tweedley@murdoch.edu.au) ASAP (preferably by Friday 31st March 2017). The project will start in May 2017.

The successful applicants will receive a living allowance (stipend) scholarship from Murdoch worth $26,682 per annum (tax exempt) and will be eligible to apply for top-up funds. All fieldwork and operating costs are funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and Recfishwest. Tuition fees will also be covered by Murdoch University.

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