Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
Fisheries Biologist III-FRM
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Toppenish, Washington, United States, 98948
Announcement #
2025-209
Issue Date:
07-14-25
Closing Date:
09-08-25
Fisheries Biologist III
Fisheries Resource Management
Department of Natural Resources
Hourly Wage: $29.70-$33.43/Regular/Full-Time
Location: Richland, Toppenish or Yakima
The Fish Biologist III will be responsible for maintaining and improving fish monitoring equipment as well as conducting other fish surveys throughout the lower Yakima River below Union Gap to the confluence with the Columbia River. While the projects overseen by this position are focused on monitoring, these projects are often components of larger projects or initiatives. This will require a high level of collaboration with state, local, and federal partners to ensure the monitoring provides pertinent information to those greater efforts. The incumbent is to demonstrate strategic technical leadership, influence, and expertise that makes the most effective use of Yakama Nation Fisheries project resources.
Examples of Work Performed:
Evaluation of Diversion Dams and Mark Detection Sites :
Compile juvenile migration and adult return and escapement data generated through visual surveys and counts, radiotelemetry, acoustic detection, and PIT tag detection.
Monitor Yakima Basin salmonids including Spring, Summer, and Fall Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, and Summer Steelhead passing Prosser Dam and other Yakima Basin diversion dams using visual counts and mark directions both instream and within passage facilities at diversion dams.
Estimate mark detection efficiencies, juvenile entrainment rates and juvenile passage and survival rates within selected facilities using locally generated data and as needed, upstream and downstream detection sites.
Design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance of Remote Instream PIT-Tag detection arrays throughout the Yakima Basin.
Assist in the operation and maintenance of a PIT Tag barge near the mouth of the Yakima River.
Estimate detection efficiency of instream antenna arrays and assist YN Fisheries Managers with design and placement of arrays to maximize efficiency.
Work with YN Fisheries Managers to identify potential passage problem areas and to develop recommendations for improving fish passage.
Report preparation, journal publications and presentations of scientific findings at conferences and workshops.
Survival Rates, Travel Times, and Return Rates of Juvenile Release Groups :
Estimate juvenile survival and travel time from marking or release to downstream passage at instream. Antenna arrays, Prosser Dam and McNary Dam for differentially marked hatchery and wild Yakima Basin salmonids including Spring, Summer, and Fall Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, and Summer Steelhead.
Estimate return rates of juvenile release groups and juvenile marking, release, or instream detection to adult return at Columbia River dams and Yakima Basin dams and other mark detection sites.
Advise YN Fisheries Managers on the numbers of marked fish to release and on replication strategies to develop reliable estimates and comparisons of juvenile survival rates from release to instream antenna arrays, Prosser Dam and McNary Dam, and return rates of adults to various locations in the Yakima Basin.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Populations Status Trends:
Monitor variability in fish population abundance and productivity indices by brood year and outmigration Year in relation to local and Columbia Basin-wide limiting factors.
Assist YN Fisheries Managers with designing studies to quantify predator impacts on rearing and outmigration juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Yakima Basin and analyzing study results.
Assist YN Fisheries Managers with strategies to limit predation impacts on juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Yakima Basin.
Collect, tabulate, and analyze fisheries statistical information for inclusion in reports and summaries.
Conduct searches for statistical information and data, query and download datasets from regional databases, consolidate and link information from numerous datasets.
Process information using statistical and database software to produce routine status reports and contribute
to annual or project summaries with narrative explanation and interpretation.
Evaluate sources of data and metadata to determine their reliability and value to YN research and management efforts.
Utilize mathematical and statistical techniques that reflect underlying biological and ecological processes.
Store, organize, and back up raw and processed data and metadata to ensure their integrity and security and to facilitate retrieval and presentation.
Support senior management information needs by producing summaries, reports, and presentation materials.
Communicate verbally and in writing how data was collected and process and how analyses were performed.
Contribute to peer-reviewed publications and presentations at symposia. Prepare and deliver formal and informal presentations at in-house, local, and regional meetings.
In the field, acquire first-hand understanding of the local riverine environment and how water storage, irrigated agriculture, power generation, flood control, and urban development affects aquatic resources essential to the Yakama Nation and drive research and management priorities.
Maintain positive and productive relationships with colleagues within the outside the Yakama Nation.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Training and relevant experience in statistical evaluation and analysis in fisheries or another biological field transferable to fisheries disciplines.
Familiarity with querying large databases and manipulating local datasets using database, statistical, and programming software. R or python are the programing languages currently utilized by the existing team.
Ability to distill and communicate complex technical information to policy and lay audiences.
Ability to collaborate and build relationships with a variety of individuals and organizations.
Understanding of the larger ecological and management issues addressed by one's own specialized work.
Ability to work outdoors on occasion, possible under arduous conditions.
Minimum Requirements:
Master's degree in Biology with a concentration in animal population biology or Biology Degree with concentration in animal population biology
AND
at least 2 years of relevant, professional work experience.
Required to pass a pre-employment drug test.
Must possess a valid Washington State Driver's License with the ability to obtain a Yakama Nation Driving permit.
Preferred Requirements:
Fisheries education and work experience is desirable but not required.
Enrolled Yakama Preference, but all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.
2025-209
Issue Date:
07-14-25
Closing Date:
09-08-25
Fisheries Biologist III
Fisheries Resource Management
Department of Natural Resources
Hourly Wage: $29.70-$33.43/Regular/Full-Time
Location: Richland, Toppenish or Yakima
The Fish Biologist III will be responsible for maintaining and improving fish monitoring equipment as well as conducting other fish surveys throughout the lower Yakima River below Union Gap to the confluence with the Columbia River. While the projects overseen by this position are focused on monitoring, these projects are often components of larger projects or initiatives. This will require a high level of collaboration with state, local, and federal partners to ensure the monitoring provides pertinent information to those greater efforts. The incumbent is to demonstrate strategic technical leadership, influence, and expertise that makes the most effective use of Yakama Nation Fisheries project resources.
Examples of Work Performed:
Evaluation of Diversion Dams and Mark Detection Sites :
Compile juvenile migration and adult return and escapement data generated through visual surveys and counts, radiotelemetry, acoustic detection, and PIT tag detection.
Monitor Yakima Basin salmonids including Spring, Summer, and Fall Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, and Summer Steelhead passing Prosser Dam and other Yakima Basin diversion dams using visual counts and mark directions both instream and within passage facilities at diversion dams.
Estimate mark detection efficiencies, juvenile entrainment rates and juvenile passage and survival rates within selected facilities using locally generated data and as needed, upstream and downstream detection sites.
Design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance of Remote Instream PIT-Tag detection arrays throughout the Yakima Basin.
Assist in the operation and maintenance of a PIT Tag barge near the mouth of the Yakima River.
Estimate detection efficiency of instream antenna arrays and assist YN Fisheries Managers with design and placement of arrays to maximize efficiency.
Work with YN Fisheries Managers to identify potential passage problem areas and to develop recommendations for improving fish passage.
Report preparation, journal publications and presentations of scientific findings at conferences and workshops.
Survival Rates, Travel Times, and Return Rates of Juvenile Release Groups :
Estimate juvenile survival and travel time from marking or release to downstream passage at instream. Antenna arrays, Prosser Dam and McNary Dam for differentially marked hatchery and wild Yakima Basin salmonids including Spring, Summer, and Fall Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, and Summer Steelhead.
Estimate return rates of juvenile release groups and juvenile marking, release, or instream detection to adult return at Columbia River dams and Yakima Basin dams and other mark detection sites.
Advise YN Fisheries Managers on the numbers of marked fish to release and on replication strategies to develop reliable estimates and comparisons of juvenile survival rates from release to instream antenna arrays, Prosser Dam and McNary Dam, and return rates of adults to various locations in the Yakima Basin.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Populations Status Trends:
Monitor variability in fish population abundance and productivity indices by brood year and outmigration Year in relation to local and Columbia Basin-wide limiting factors.
Assist YN Fisheries Managers with designing studies to quantify predator impacts on rearing and outmigration juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Yakima Basin and analyzing study results.
Assist YN Fisheries Managers with strategies to limit predation impacts on juvenile salmon and steelhead in the Yakima Basin.
Collect, tabulate, and analyze fisheries statistical information for inclusion in reports and summaries.
Conduct searches for statistical information and data, query and download datasets from regional databases, consolidate and link information from numerous datasets.
Process information using statistical and database software to produce routine status reports and contribute
to annual or project summaries with narrative explanation and interpretation.
Evaluate sources of data and metadata to determine their reliability and value to YN research and management efforts.
Utilize mathematical and statistical techniques that reflect underlying biological and ecological processes.
Store, organize, and back up raw and processed data and metadata to ensure their integrity and security and to facilitate retrieval and presentation.
Support senior management information needs by producing summaries, reports, and presentation materials.
Communicate verbally and in writing how data was collected and process and how analyses were performed.
Contribute to peer-reviewed publications and presentations at symposia. Prepare and deliver formal and informal presentations at in-house, local, and regional meetings.
In the field, acquire first-hand understanding of the local riverine environment and how water storage, irrigated agriculture, power generation, flood control, and urban development affects aquatic resources essential to the Yakama Nation and drive research and management priorities.
Maintain positive and productive relationships with colleagues within the outside the Yakama Nation.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Training and relevant experience in statistical evaluation and analysis in fisheries or another biological field transferable to fisheries disciplines.
Familiarity with querying large databases and manipulating local datasets using database, statistical, and programming software. R or python are the programing languages currently utilized by the existing team.
Ability to distill and communicate complex technical information to policy and lay audiences.
Ability to collaborate and build relationships with a variety of individuals and organizations.
Understanding of the larger ecological and management issues addressed by one's own specialized work.
Ability to work outdoors on occasion, possible under arduous conditions.
Minimum Requirements:
Master's degree in Biology with a concentration in animal population biology or Biology Degree with concentration in animal population biology
AND
at least 2 years of relevant, professional work experience.
Required to pass a pre-employment drug test.
Must possess a valid Washington State Driver's License with the ability to obtain a Yakama Nation Driving permit.
Preferred Requirements:
Fisheries education and work experience is desirable but not required.
Enrolled Yakama Preference, but all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.