Advances in Marine Vertebrate Research in Latin America ― Technological Innovation and Conservation

This book deals with technological advances and innovation in the ecology and conservation of marine vertebrates in Latin America. This eclectic collection is broad in scope but provides detailed summaries of new methods that are deployed in the study of marine environmental conservation. Key issues revolve around the development and application of educational methodologies in the field of marine vertebrate research, which provide a rational basis for better management of marine environments using modern techniques associated with GIS, satellite tracking, aerial systems, bioacoustics, biogeochemistry, genetics, underwater videography, species photoidentification, molecular biology, trophic ecological methods, ethological methods, and behavioural ecology, among others. Discussion and elucidation of these kinds of techniques are aimed at university-level students and post-graduate researchers. The scope of this volume includes whales, sharks, rays, dolphins, tropical fishes, turtles, manatees as well as aspects of Latin American marine ecosystem conservation. Researchers in this biogeographic region, as well as others involved with marine vertebrate research, will find this work essential reading.

Charles W. Finkl has edited and/or contributed to more than eight volumes in the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. For the past 33 years he has been the Executive Director of the Coastal Education & Research Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of the international Journal of Coastal Research, In addition to these duties, he is Professor Emeritus at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia (Perth) and previously worked for a wholly owned Australian subsidiary of the International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO). During his career, he acquired field experience in Australia; the Caribbean; South America; SW Pacific islands; southern Africa; Western Europe; and the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and Southeast USA.