This book is a collection of annual reports on the status of US Fisheries to Congress for the period of 1997-2013 written by NOAA Fisheries (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov).

The book addresses this critical need by providing a straightforward and easy to read primer to key elements of at-risk butterfly conservation programs including captive husbandry, organism reintroduction, habitat restoration, population monitoring, recovery planning and cooperative programs. Impacts from habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change continue to accelerate the rate of imperilment and necessitate increased conservation action. Zoos, natural history museums, botanical gardens and wildlife agencies are progressively focusing on insects, particularly charismatic groups such as butterflies and native pollinators, to help advance local conservation efforts and foster increased community interest and engagement. Today, many institutions and their partners have successfully initiated at-risk butterfly conservation programs, and numerous others are exploring ways to become involved. However, insufficient experience and familiarity with insects is a critical constraint preventing staff and institutions from adequately planning, implementing and evaluating organism-targeted activities. The information provided is intended to improve staff practices, learn from existing programs, promote broader information exchange, and strengthen institutional ability to develop new or improve existing butterfly conservation initiatives. The information provided is intended to improve staff practices, learn from existing programs, promote broader information exchange, and strengthen institutional ability to develop new or improve existing butterfly conservation initiatives. This book will be useful to professionals from zoos, natural history museums, botanical gardens, wildlife agencies, conservation organizations, land managers, students, and scientist in conservation biology, ecology, entomology, biology, and zoology.

Among the fishes, a remarkably wide range of biological adaptations to diverse habitats has evolved. As well as living in the conventional habitats of lakes, ponds, rivers, rock pools and the open sea, fish have solved the problems of life in deserts, in the deep sea, in the cold antarctic, and in warm waters of high alkalinity or of low oxygen. Along with these adaptations, we find the most impressive specializations of morphology, physiology and behaviour. For example we can marvel at the high-speed swimming of the marlins, sailfish and warm-blooded tunas, air-breathing in catfish and lungfish, parental care in the mouth-brooding cichlids, and viviparity in many sharks and toothcarps. Moreover, fish are of considerable importance to the survival of the human species in the form of nutritious, delicious and diverse food. Rational exploitation and management of our global stocks of fishes must rely upon a detailed and precise insight of their biology. The Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series aims to present timely volumes reviewing important aspects of fish biology. Most volumes will be of interest to research workers in biology, zoology, ecology and physiology but an additional aim is for the books to be accessible to a wide spectrum of non-specialist readers ranging from undergraduates and postgraduates to those with an interest in industrial and commercial aspects of fish and fisheries.

Quantitative modeling methods have become a central tool in the management of harvested fish populations. This book examines how these modeling methods work, why they sometimes fail, and how they might be improved by incorporating larger ecological interactions. Fisheries Ecology and Management provides a broad introduction to the concepts and quantitative models needed to successfully manage fisheries. Walters and Martell develop models that account for key ecological dynamics such as trophic interactions, food webs, multi-species dynamics, risk-avoidance behavior, habitat selection and density-dependence. They treat fisheries policy development as a two-stage process, first identifying strategies for varying harvest in relation to changes in abundance, then finding ways to implement such strategies in terms of monitoring and regulatory procedures. This book provides a general framework for developing assessment models in terms of state-observation dynamics hypotheses, and points out that most fisheries assessment failures have been due to inappropriate observation model hypotheses rather than faulty models for ecological dynamics. Intended as a text in upper division and graduate classes on fisheries assessment and management, this useful guide will also be widely read by ecologists and fisheries scientists.

Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation covers one of the most endangered birds in North America, and the subject of intense research and highly visible conservation activity. The volume summarizes current biological information on Whooping Cranes and provides the basis for future research necessary for conservation of this species. This edited volume concentrates on work completed in the past 20 years in the areas of population biology, behavior and social structure, habitat use, disease and health, captive breeding, and Whooping Crane conservation. Much of the information presented comes from the study and management of remnant and reintroduced populations of Whooping Cranes in the field; some information is from experimentation and breeding of captive Whooping Cranes. Whooping Cranes: Biology and Conservation seeks to inform and galvanize action dedicated to meeting the challenges faced by Whooping Crane managers and conservationists. Thus, it describes one model of endangered species conservation and restoration that will interest a wide audience: professionals that work on cranes; researchers in the fields of small population biology, endangered species, and avian ecology; wildlife veterinarians and those involved in avian husbandry; administrators of management agencies or conservation organizations; conservationists in other fields; teachers of conservation biology or ornithology and their students; and the educated general public. - Presents a comprehensive treatment of the biology and ecology of Whooping Cranes, including biology of both remnant and reintroduced populations of Whooping Cranes - Describes efforts over the past 45 years on conservation and the challenges of reintroducing an endangered species - Includes chapters from a variety of disciplinary and scale perspectives, ranging from evolution, to population ecology, behavior, habitat use, large landscape conservation, conflict, and conservation efforts - Features contributions that are readable, yet technically complete and fully referenced - Provides an example of partnership and collegial action that integrates information produced by scientific research and operational wildlife management - Edited and written by the leading Whooping Crane scholars and practitioners focused on this high-profile species of conservation concern