Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL 34946, USA Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99708, USA Department of Wildlife Management, North Slope Borough, Barrow, AK 99723, USA Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fairbanks, AK 99701, USA Native Village of Kotzebue, Kotzebue, AK 99752, USA Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, Barrow, AK...

............................................................................................................................... iv RÉSUMÉ ................................................................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................

The overall top level goal of this effort is to investigate the physiological i.e. neuroimmunoendocrinological responses of beluga whales to “stressors”. “Stressor events” will allow for a better understanding and characterization of the relationships among hormones (e.g. cortisol, corticosterone, adrenocorticotropin hormone, aldosterone, catecholamines) in different matrices (blood, saliva, bl...

This paper presents the results of study on age, growth, mortality rates and yield-per-recruit of Beluga (Huso huso) living in Caspian Sea. The mean length of successive years, mortality rates and yield-per-recruit studies indicated that at present the resource is under heavy fishing pressure. For the female Beluga growth was regarded as comprising of three stages, and the von Bertalanffy param...

Sturgeon aquaculture is an emerging worldwide industry both for human consumption as well conservation. Several transmissible diseases limit this including mycosis by dematiaceous fungi such Veronaea botryosa . This study reports the first diagnosis of phaeohyphomycosis in a beluga sturgeon ( Huso huso ) Italy.

in sturgeon aquaculture, where the main purpose is caviar production, a reliable method is needed to separate fish according to gender. currently, due to the lack of external sexual dimorphism, the fish are sexed by an invasive surgical examination of the gonads. development of a non-invasive procedure for sexing fish based on genetic markers is of special interest. in the present study we empl...

The development of indicators as tools for ecosystem monitoring is a key step in the management Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This study uses previously developed sex-specific body condition indices, blubber thickness and girth, to assess temporal changes from 2000 2015 harvested Eastern Beaufort Sea (EBS) beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). Specifically, goals were (1) examine seasonal int...

Simulations testing the future impacts of harvest and climate change to the Hudson Bay marine ecosystem were created utilizing an existing Ecopath with Ecosim model (Hoover et al., in this issue). Building on past simulations depicting known changes to the region, a suite of future scenarios was constructed to include a variety of climate change and harvest levels. Previously identified ecosyst...

Individually distinct acoustic features have been observed in a wide range of vocally active animal species and have been used to study animals for decades. Only a few studies, however, have attempted to examine the use of acoustic identification of individuals to assess population, either for evaluating the population structure, population abundance and density, or for assessing animal seasona...