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...

The U.S. National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) provides for the long term storage of well documented and preserved specimens representing several types of environmental matrices. A major part of this inventory consists of marine mammal tissues (e.g., blubber, liver, kidney, and muscle). Within the NBSB selected specimens are periodically analyzed for chlorinated hydrocarbons and trace ele...

Inorganic mercury was localized through autometallography (AMG) in kidney and liver of free-ranging, subsistence-harvested beluga (Delphinapterus leucus: n = 20) and bowhead (Balaena mysticetrus: n = 5) whales. AMG granules were not evident in bowhead tissues, confirming nominal mercury (Hg) concentrations (range = 0.011 to 0.038 microg/g ww for total Hg). In belugas, total Hg ranged from 0.30 ...

The objectives of this study were to to identify maternal characteristics associated with traditional food consumption and to examine food items associated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury body burden in pregnant Inuit women from Northern Québec. We interviewed women from three communities at mid-pregnancy and at 1 and 11 months postpartum. We measured PCBs, Hg, and selenium in...