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The article focuses on environmental aspects of hunting of gray wolves that use Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Topics discussed include protection of wolves under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) of the U.S., changes in the social structure of wolf packs and reproductive rates of wolf packs.

A survey of 7,000 property owners in the counties bordering Lake Ontario in New York State was conducted in 2009 to better understand the factors influencing fishing participation by resident anglers. Relationships among motivations, constraints, facilitators, demographic, and experiential characteristics, and fishing participation were studied. A total of 681 questionnaires were completed by anglers. Two factor analyses confirmed 9 motivations and 12 facilitators/constraints. Path analysis revealed direct relationships between fishing participation and gender, number of adult anglers in the household, and three factors perceived as facilitators by the average respondent (level of commitment to fishing, level of interest in fishing, and level of knowledge about fishing); none of the perceived constraints significantly influenced participation. Management efforts focused on increasing the knowledge and interest of resident anglers are suggested for increasing fishing participation in New York's Lake Ontario Region. Including facilitators in future studies on factors influencing participation is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines why Western Australia's Integrated Fisheries Management ( IFM) policy was adopted, its development, achievements, lessons learned and future directions. Adopted in 2004, IFM aims to achieve and maintain fish resource sustainability through optimal catch share arrangements between competing users. It involves setting an allowable harvest level for each resource, using an independent allocation committee process to allocate explicit catch shares for commercial, recreational and customary sectors, and monitoring sectoral catch. IFM provides guidance for managing each sector within its catch share, providing access to that share, and developing reallocation mechanisms to transfer sectoral catch shares. The three most important multi-sector resources, western rock lobster, Panulirus cygnus George, metropolitan Roe's abalone, Haliotis roei Grey, and west coast demersal scalefish, have undergone the allocation process. The first two are operational while the third is almost complete. Allocation outcomes demonstrate the need to account for each sector's catch, with credible scientific data to underpin decision-making, independent transparent allocation processes, robust sectoral representation, workable reallocation mechanisms and management arrangements to ensure that all sectors can access their allocated share. IFM generates fair decisions for optimal resource use to reduce intersectoral conflict and provide better community outcomes, with wide applicability across other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biological impact and the social characteristics of different artisanal (professional) and recreational fishing techniques on the marine resources of a coastal Mediterranean area were compared. Data were from artisanal and recreational surveys carried out between 2006 and 2010. Competition between recreational (particularly spear fishing) and artisanal fishers for the natural resources is important as 52% of the 98 species surveyed were caught by both types of fishers. A total of 87 species were caught by all artisanal fishing gears together (of which 84% were retained and 16% discarded). Recreational fishing caught 58 species of which none was systematically discarded. The two fishing techniques that raise major environmental concerns are spear fishing (very selective in terms of species and/or sizes and high intrinsic vulnerability of catches) and trammel netting (highest number of species discarded and highest number of species endangered). Important challenges from the social standpoint were found that need to be taken into account in the management of coastal fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea including: progressive disappearance of the artisanal fisheries, ageing of the artisanal fisher populations and decline in the number of fishing gears used by artisanal fishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recruitment overfishing occurs when stocks are fished to a level where recruitment declines proportionally with adult abundance. Although typically considered a commercial fishery problem, recruitment overfishing can also occur in freshwater recreational fisheries. This study developed an age-structured model to determine if minimum-length limits can prevent recruitment overfishing in black crappie, Pomoxis nigromaculatus (LeSueur), and walleye, Sander vitreus (Mitchill) fisheries considering angling effort response to changes in fish abundance. Simulations showed that minimum-length limits prevented recruitment overfishing of black crappie and walleye, but larger minimum-length limits were required if angler effort showed only weak responses to changes in fish abundance. Low angler-effort responsiveness caused fishing mortality rates to remain high when stock abundance declined. By contrast, at high effort responsiveness, anglers left the fishery in response to stock declines and allowed stocks to recover. Angler effort for black crappie and walleye fisheries suggested that angler effort could be highly responsive for some fisheries and relatively stable for others, thereby increasing the risk of recruitment overfishing in real fisheries. Recruitment overfishing should be considered seriously in freshwater recreational fisheries, and more studies are needed to evaluate the responsiveness of angler effort to changes in fish abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian woodcock Scolopax rusticola is a valued game species in southwestern Europe, which is locally under a high hunting pressure. Disturbance due to hunting can lead to avoidance of wintering areas or have an impact on population dynamics owing to behavioural changes. We studied the impact of disturbance on 54 radio-tagged woodcocks under an experimental framework. The birds were allocated to the following three groups: simulated hunting disturbance (controlled disturbance; CD), hunted (H) and control (C). We studied the following four behavioural elements: space use, activity duration, number of commuting flights and date of spring migration departure. We found no differences in behavioural responses between the groups except for space use. A majority of CD birds used larger ranges during daytime than did H and C birds but did not change their nocturnal sites. To a large extent, this nocturnal site fidelity likely accounted for the weak disturbance effect, in so far as food intake was ensured. Our study underlines the importance of permanent meadows in the surroundings of forests to help this species to better withstand hunting disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four species of the genus Gymnotus are present in Argentina: G. inaequilabiatus, G. omarorum, G. pantanal, and G. sylvius, the last three species being recorded for the first time in freshwater courses. Gymnotus omarorum, G. pantanal, and G. sylvius together with others of the genus Brachyhypopomus are the group of fishes that bear the greatest impact in the trade as live bait for sport fishing in the northeastern region of Argentina. Within this large area, only the provinces of Chaco, Corrientes, and Formosa have regulations for the catch, trade, and sale of species as live bait. Unfortunately, the species covered by legal regulations are Gymnotus carapo and Brachyhypopomus brevirostris, neither of which occurs in freshwater habitats of Argentina. Comments are included as to how this bad taxonomy affects the regulations and conservation status of these species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the appropriate 'Unit to Conserve' (UTC) is critical to the success of any management scheme. While the need to define the UTC appropriate to the IWC's Catch Limit Algorithm (CLA) has long been recognised by its Scientific Committee, little progress has been made on this issue. The CLA was rigorously tested prior to its adoption. However, most of those original performance trials focused on single-population scenarios or two-population scenarios with no ongoing dispersal. None of the trials considered the performance of the CLA across a range of dispersal rates. In this study, the performance of the CLA under a variety of population structure scenarios is examined. This is the first study to investigate the levels of connectivity (i.e. dispersal rate) for which populations require separate management to meet the conservation goals of the CLA. All the trials consisted of two populations that were managed as a single stock for 100 years. Both historical and modern hunts were spatially-biased so that population 1 was the primary target of hunting. Parameters that varied among trials were the relative carrying capacities (K) of the populations, the dispersal rate between them, maximum sustainable yield rate (MSYR1+), and the precision in simulated abundance estimates. All of these parameters had strong effects on the conservation performance of the CLA. Trials with a low MSYR1+ (1%) generally ended with the abundance of population 1 below 0.54K, regardless of the dispersal rate or relative carrying capacities of the two populations. The same was true of trials in which the carrying capacity of population 1 represented only 10% of the total landscape carrying capacity and the CV of the abundance estimates was low, even when dispersal between populations was high (5 × 10-3yr-1) and MSYR1+ was 4%. The results suggest that the appropriate UTCs under the RMP are likely to exchange dispersers at high enough rates that they will be difficult to delineate using existing methods. These results also highlight the value of spatially-diffuse hunting patterns that avoid potential overhunting of unrecognised stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a general overview of recreational fisheries in Brazil, with emphasis on inland fisheries; reports their current needs; and provides directions for future work considering that there is an apparent increase in recreational fishing in emerging economies around the globe. Even though there is no nationwide survey to identify the profile of all Brazilian recreational fishers, some insights can be obtained from competitive fishing events and from the questionnaire printed on the back of fishing licenses. The number of fishing licenses issued in 2010 was approximately 220,000, representing an increase of 220% compared to 2000. Some estimates suggest that the number of recreational fishers in Brazil may be around 10 million. Information on fishing expenses, catch-and-release activities, fishing guides, lodging, fishing areas, target species, management control, and fishing clubs and associations is presented. Data for basic estimates such as total number of recreational fishers, total catch and species composition, and total economic value are unavailable, but the results presented here are nevertheless essential for a long-term planning of the development of recreational fishing in Brazil. Other requirements are presented and suggestions are made toward improved management of recreational fisheries in Brazil and other emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wildlife harvest management requires an understanding of hunter behavioral interactions with the game. Hunter harvest is indicated to be more dependent on experience and attitudes than game abundance. We tested how the grouse hunter's bag size was affected or not by having local knowledge of the hunting ground, grouse density, and distribution. The local knowledge was acquired through approximately a decade of conducting pre-hunt counts, and was tested against hunters without the local knowledge, but who had similar experience of counting grouse from other areas. Hunters with local knowledge were not more efficient in bagging grouse than hunters without local knowledge. Rather, there seems to be the general variation in experience among hunters that regulated harvest rates, through number of grouse encounters, and gender of the hunters. The results add support to the concern of using bag statistics as an index for population changes of wildlife species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT The rumen contents were collected from 36 wild Yeso sika deer ( Cervus nippon yesoensis) captured by deer culling or by hunting in the spring, summer, autumn and winter in Hokkaido, Japan. Botanical classification was conducted, and the contents of mineral (calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn)) were measured. The animals were captured around pastures or fallow field areas in the Kushiro area. The rumen contents consisted of grasses and Sasa sp. leaves regardless of the season. Leaves and bark were ingested in the spring, autumn and winter. The macro-mineral contents in the rumen showed seasonal changes. In the summer, the Ca, K and P contents were high, and the Na content was low. There were no seasonal changes in the Fe content. The P, Na and Fe contents were higher than the animals' requirements. In a future survey, it is needed to determine the mineral contents of the food ingested by wild Yeso sika deer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing Palmore's analytic strategy in cohort analysis, the present study was designed to investigate cohort differences and longitudinal change in lodging expenditure on recreational fishing trips. The study examined recreational fishing tourists' lodging expenditure behavior in the context of rural tourism. National survey data for 2001 and 2006 fishing, hunting, and wildlife-associated recreation were analyzed to conduct cohort analysis. Findings showed that lodging expenditure in 2006 increased as much as 40% from figures for 2001. That increase was primarily due to changes in tourists' taste and social structure. The study pays particular attention to the social changes anticipated as baby boomers retire. The senior baby boomer cohort in this study provided an explanation for why and how senior baby boomer tourists behaved differently than the broader tourism market. Academically, the study approached tourism's economic contribution at the macrolevel (tourism industry wide) and microlevel (tourists' spending behavior). The study suggested that the macroapproaches and microapproaches could provide in-depth understanding of tourists' behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]