NOAA Fisheries’ (NMFS) Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) Incidental Take Program (ITP), located within the Permits and Conservation Division (PR1) in the Office of Protected Resources (OPR), protects and conserves marine mammals according to requirements of the MMPA and Endangered Species Act (ESA). To improve Program efficiency, we aim to develop a scientific literature management system that will be used by ITP staff to quickly create reference lists applicable to and necessary for MMPA regulatory actions (i.e., Incidental Take Authorizations, including Incidental Harassment Authorizations, Incidental Take Regulations, and Letters of Authorization). This proposed effort will identify missing literature that is important for use in regulatory documents and in tools designed for use by the public to assist in marine mammal conservation and compliance efforts. Ultimately, this effort will increase regulatory efficiency by decreasing the time needed to finalize regulatory actions, assist in developing a transparent, robust, and biologically sound legal record of scientific literature and resources, and standardize literature management throughout the ITP.
To fulfill this goal, this internship would focus on working with a subset of ITP staff to create an EndNote database and learning how scientific information is incorporated into government documents. The selected intern would identify and locate literature from existing literature databases, regulatory actions, guidance documents, and templates and would create a single, central literature management system following an existing standard operating procedure that would streamline and standardize ITP’s incorporation of new and existing literature and science into MMPA actions. This role will require a candidate with some previous experience/knowledge in EndNote, great attention to detail, and creative thinking skills that can be used to better improve Program efficiency. Throughout the internship, the individual will work directly with NMFS ITP staff and contribute to NMFS’ mission and initiatives under the MMPA and ESA. This internship will also provide opportunities to learn about NMFS’ regulatory processes and how to rigorously apply scientific information in government-level efforts that contribute to marine mammal conservation.
The timeline for this internship is flexible, but ideally, the intern will devote ~2 to 3 months to the project and learn how this information is applied more broadly within OPR, depending on their available hours per week.