Call for MSCApost-doctoral Fellowship candidates in the field of “Pelagic protected areas for top predators in Western Africa”

Are you a postdoctoral researcher thinking about your next career move? if you are looking to give your career a boost by working abroad, you can apply for a MSCA in our research group.

Project information

Pelagic protected areas for top predators in Western Africa

In Western Africa waters, increasing human pressures are threatening marine megafauna and lack of studies and poor surveillance makes these waters one of the less known though intensively exploited areas of the planet, including IUU fisheries. To develop a first proposal on pelagic protected areas for top predators in Western Africa, we will bring together all information available on seabird, turtle, cetaceans and rays abundance and distribution combined with all main human pressures in the region, in particular fishery pressure based on AIS data. We will collate all available information from a range of research teams in a georeferenced framework to define main human impacts, Key Biodiversity Areas and political responsibilities for the protections of top predators in the pelagic Western Africa waters. The study will be based on massive data sets on GPS tracking data for several species of seabirds and turtles, GPS combined with bird-borne radar detectors, AIS data for industrial and semi-industrial fisheries, fine-scale seabird-fishery interactions by combining GPS tracking of seabirds and AIS data, intensity of marine traffic, maps of bycatch and bycatch risk, maps on current and future hydrocarbon exploitation in the area, etc. By this means we expect to define a first map of human impacts in the area and a proposal for a network of pelagic protected areas in pelagic water of Western Africa.

The major research lines and publications records of the group are outlined in the following links:

www.avesamarabierto.es

www.gonzalez-solis.com