Liliana C. Naves

• PhD
• Research Analyst IV at Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Harvests of seabirds, eggs, and chicks are widespread across the more than 160 countries with ocean or seacoasts. These harvests involve diverse socio-ecological contexts including indigenous and local community subsistence, recreational, and commercial uses. Currently, many seabird populations have diminished to a point where they can no longer su...

Abstract Monitoring harvests and understanding hunters' perspectives are key for effective harvest management. Emperor goose (Anser canagicus) harvest in Alaska was recently re‐authorized after a 30‐year closure, but relatively small numbers of geese are available for a sustainable harvest. We characterized participation in the fall–winter hunting...

Emperor Goose (Anser canagicus) harvest in Alaska was re-opened in 2017 after a 30-year closure, but goose numbers available for a sustainable harvest remain limited. We used a Delphi process, an iterative group communication technique, to elicit expert opinion across 3 successive survey rounds to identify priorities for research, harvest managemen...

We estimated the annual harvest of waterfowl and Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis and their eggs by Alaska’s rural residents and described seasonal and geographic patterns. Subsistence in Alaska refers to patterns of resource use typical of rural, remote regions where Indigenous people are a high proportion of the population. Rural communities in Ala...

Federal regulations re-opened the harvest of emperor goose in 2017 in Alaska after a 30-year closure, but the number of geese available for a sustainable harvest remains limited. The objective of this study was to complement bird harvest data within the emperor goose distribution range in Alaska, since data for the Aleutian-Pribilof Islands and Kod...

Conservation efforts are shaped by individual and collective human behaviors, cultural norms and values, economic pressures, and political and organizational structures. As such, the conservation social sciences—disciplines that draw on social science theories and approaches to improve conservation efforts—can play a vital role in advancing the sci...

Limited data on harvest and population parameters are impediments to assessing shorebird harvest sustainability. Because of sharp declines in shorebird populations, timely conservation efforts require approaches that account for uncertainty in harvest sustainability. We combined harvest assessment and ethnographic research to better understand shor...

Assessing seabird harvest sustainability is difficult because of limited information on harvest and on harvest impacts on seabird populations. This study quantified seasonal harvest of seabirds and their eggs in all Alaska regions, addressed management and conservation questions, and identified topics where collaboration among stakeholders can supp...

The yellow-billed loon Gavia adamsii was designated as a candidate species for listing as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2009. Subsistence harvest was identified as a threat based on the 2007 harvest estimate for the Bering Strait region of Alaska. This estimate was unusually high and inconsistent with data on the...

Subsistence harvest studies use number-to-mass conversion factors (CFn-m) to transform numbers of animals harvested into food production (CFn-m = body mass × recovery rate; where recovery rate is the percentage of the body mass represented by the processed carcass). Also, if egg harvest was reported as volume (e.g., a bucket), volume-to-number conv...

This study assessed levels of agreement in knowledge and opinions about salmon fisheries and ecology of the Copper River, Alaska, in three user groups: the Ahtna, an Alaska Native people indigenous to the upper river; commercial fishers who fish at the mouth of the river; and fishery managers and biologists with jurisdiction over the entire watersh...

Primary, tail and body moult of three seabirds from Tristan da Cunha archipelago were studied by castnetting offshore south Brazil from February 2006 to August 2007. Timing, duration and synchronization of primary and tail moult are described relative to the annual calendar. Body moult overlapped breeding in Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses ( Thal...

This report summarizes results from comprehensive subsistence surveys conducted in Buckland in February 2004 and in Kiana in February 2007. In Buckland, surveys were administered to 83 of 88 households (94%). Expanding for 5 unsurveyed households, Buckland’s estimated total harvest of wild foods in 2003 was 226,074 lb (±11%), while average harvests...

Sperm aging is known to be detrimental to reproductive performance. However, this apparently general phenomenon has seldom been studied in an evolutionary context. The negative impact of sperm aging on parental fitness should constitute a strong selective pressure for adaptations to avoid its effects. We studied the impact of sperm aging on black-l...

Previous studies have reported that pair duration is positively related to breeding performance and negatively related to divorce probability. According to the concept of ‘mate familiarity’, a long-term improvement in pair coordination with pair duration results in increased breeding performance. We assessed whether breeding experience, costs of ma...

There is evidence that breeding failure is associated with divorce and dispersal in many bird species. However, deviations from the general pattern “success-stay/failure-leave” seem to be common, suggesting that factors other than breeding performance may importantly influence mate and habitat selection. Moreover, variability in response to perform...

We studied the diet of Black Skimmers (Rhynchops niger) through analysis of pellets and faeces collected at Patos Lagoon estuary, southern Brazil, where non-breeding birds gather from December to August. We identified 23 prey types from twelve families of fishes, two of crustaceans, and one of squid (N = 1797 prey items). Silversides (Odonthestes a...

Guide for identification of sharks, rays and skates in landings of the fishery in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Twenty-six species of sharks and 17 species of rays and skates are common off Rio Grande do Sul. In the commercial fishery, the sharks are landed without the head, viscera and fins. The rays and skates are landed without the head, abdomen and...

Regurgitation samples in three different species of seabirds were collected on Saint Peter and Saint Paul's Rocks in three periods: 07/08-11/09/1998, 20/02-17/03/1999 and 18-30/12/1999. Ninety prey specimens were sampled in S. leucogaster regurgitations. They belonged to seven taxa, of which 80.0% were flying-fishes Exocoetus volitans and Paraexoco...