Natural resource professionals have frequently criticized universities for poorly preparing graduates to succeed in their jobs. We surveyed members of the American Fisheries Society to determine which job skills and knowledge of academic topics employers, students, and university faculty members deemed most important to early‐career success of fisheries professionals. Respondents also rated proficiency of recently hired, entry‐level professionals (employers) on how well their programs prepared them for career success (students and faculty) in those same job skills and academic topics. Critical thinking and written and oral communication skills topped the list of important skills and academic topics. Employers perceived recent entry‐level hires to be less well‐prepared to succeed in their careers than either university faculty or students. Entry‐level hires with post‐graduate degrees rated higher in proficiency for highly important skills and knowledge than those with bachelor's degrees. We conclude that although universities have the primary responsibility for developing critical thinking and basic communication skills of students, employers have equal or greater responsibility for enhancing skills of employees in teamwork, field techniques, and communicating with stakeholders. The American Fisheries Society can significantly contribute to the preparation of young fisheries professionals by providing opportunities for continuing education and networking with peers at professional conferences.

1. Estimates of the number of successfully breeding adults (N S ) in a population can predict levels of recruitment. However, assessments of N S are often difficult to obtain because encounters with adults are limited due to life-history characteristics, low abundance or other constraints associated with access to critical habitats. Alternatively, efforts to sample individuals at earlier ontogenetic stages can be more tractable, resulting in more comprehensive samples. 2. To estimate N S , we describe, evaluate and apply two nonparametric species richness estimators to information associated with genetic pedigree reconstruction.Simulations compared bias and precision associated with Chao and Jackknife methods when estimating N S . We also evaluated N S estimation sensitivity to two sources of variation associated with species reproductive ecology (variance in reproductive success and sex ratio skew) and genetic pedigree assignment error.Finally, the application of our novel method was demonstrated in two different species and systems (Chinook Salmon in Oregon, USA and Lake Sturgeon in Michigan, USA).3. We found unbiased N S estimates were generated across a broad range of offspring sample sizes using the Chao method. Empirical results corroborated simulationbased expectations and highlighted applications where parents and offspring are sampled, and when only offspring are sampled.4. When offspring sample sizes are adequate and pedigree reconstruction errors are low, the combination of established methods from community ecology and genetic pedigree reconstruction provides an accurate alternative method to estimate N S that can facilitate population assessments.

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Larval fish are frequently sampled in coastal tributaries to determine factors affecting recruitment, evaluate spawning success, and estimate production from spawning habitats. Imperfect detection of larvae is common, because larval fish are small and unevenly distributed in space and time, and coastal tributaries are often large and heterogeneous. We estimated detection probabilities of larval fish from several taxa in the Maumee and Detroit rivers, the two largest tributaries of Lake Erie. We then demonstrated how accounting for imperfect detection influenced (1) the probability of observing taxa as present relative to sampling effort and (2) abundance indices for larval fish of two Detroit River species. We found that detection probabilities ranged from 0.09 to 0.91 but were always less than 1.0, indicating that imperfect detection is common among taxa and between systems. In general, taxa with high fecundities, small larval length at hatching, and no nesting behaviors had the highest detection probabilities. Also, detection probabilities were higher in the Maumee River than in the Detroit River. Accounting for imperfect detection produced up to fourfold increases in abundance indices for Lake Whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis and Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum. The effect of accounting for imperfect detection in abundance indices was greatest during periods of low abundance for both species. Detection information can be used to determine the appropriate level of sampling effort for larval fishes and may improve management and conservation decisions based on larval fish data. Received August 12, 2013; accepted March 7, 2014