The environmental specialist position is a full-time, hourly position. The environmental specialist will be responsible for supporting the IRG team in year-round sea turtle removal and seasonal nesting beach activities as part of the St. Lucie Power Plant Intake Canal Project.
Key Responsibilities
- Capturing sea turtles primarily using tangle nets (with occasional use of Dip Net and Hand Capture techniques) as part of a 40+ year sea turtle capture and monitoring project
- Perform standardized data collection on captured sea turtles, including morphometrics, applying tags, and visual health assessments
- Capture, tag, and release of other species such as goliath grouper, sharks, rays, etc.
- Perform stranding and recovery duties of sick, injured, or deceased sea turtles
- Perform extensive morning sea turtle nest monitoring surveys
- Identify species (leatherback, loggerhead, and green) and determine nesting activity of all crawls encountered
- Verify, mark, observe, fate, and excavate marked nests
- Data entry and QA/QC for multiple projects and databases
- Basic maintenance and upkeep of equipment used (ATVs, nest markers, etc.)
Other duties could include but are not limited to:
- Lead public sea turtle walks
- Follow protocols and search methods for sighting protected species
- Wherever necessary, implement required mitigation measures to avoid interference or negative impacts on protected species
- Document data in an organized manner
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in a biology field is required
- Experience handling live, healthy, wild-caught sea turtles is required
- Experience identifying nesting crawls for Loggerhead, Green, and Leatherback turtles is required
- Must be a proficient swimmer
- Must be comfortable working on and around small vessels (< 26 ft long)
- Must be able to work independently without daily direct supervision
- Must be a team player and a good communicator
- Must be able to lift 100 lbs and assist moving animals exceeding 300 lbs
- Must be safety conscious
- Must be able to work a flexible schedule, including weekends and holidays
- Must have a valid driver’s license
- Must have flexibility for odd, unexpected, and long working hours and ability to work outdoors in extreme conditions (inclement weather, heat, humidity, insects, etc.)
- Experience utilizing various in-water sea turtle capture methods is highly desired
- Experience handling large marine animals (sharks, goliath groupers, rays, etc.) is desired
- Experience verifying, marking, and excavating Loggerhead, Green, and Leatherback turtle nests to
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission INBS standards is desired
- Experience working on medium to high-density sea turtle nesting beaches (~800 crawls/km in a season) is desired
- Experience using ATVs is desired
- Freediving experience or training is desired
- Experience operating and trailering small vessels (< 26 ft long) is desired
- We are a small non-profit, where a diversity of skills (grant seeking/writing, statistical analysis, fundraising, website management, etc.) is favored
- Open to US citizens and/or international citizens with appropriate visas/paperwork prior to hiring
