Kriz, M. (2004, April 17). Galloping Growth Threatens the Galapagos. National Journal, p. 1198.
The nation of Ecuador seems ecologically minded with its strict enforcement of its conservation regulations which state that there are only 83 tourist boats allowed within the Galapagos vicinity.  This came in large response to the oil tanker Jessica in 2001 which crashed on the eastern coral shelf of San Cristobal and releaed an estimated 180,000 gallons of fuel oil into the ocean.  While this destroyed a significant portion of the marine iguana population(60%), it was not as serious as it might have been due to compliant weather patterns.  This is not however the most impacting thing which has occurred there.  That honor is left to man and his desire to conquer and possess.  After fisherman desiring increased fishing rights made a public, violent assault on the government and the Darwin group it became apparent to all parties that a solution mutually appealing to everyone be assumed.  As of yet however they are stumped.

Fulgham, D. A. (2004, July 12). Big River, Big Issues. Aviation Week & Space Technology, p. 51.
Brazil is in a period of major rebuilding of its rain forest headed up by the Brazilian Air Force.  Due to this Brazilian utilization of military resources they are able to incorporate military technology and systematic action into deploying a sensor network that monitors the majority of sensory input that the jungle creates to filter out the poachers from the animals.  While this shows great promise for the green community, it is undoubtably also applicable to other areas such as security, communications, and as a testbed for future technologies.  This leaves the animals, which were meant to be the focus of the project in the background and in a position worse than the one they started because their sacred homes have been invaded by humans.  While we work on the problem in the Galapagos, let us not forget there are people here too and the technology that makes the lives of the animals better can also be used to improve the lives of the people

Edgar G. J., Banks, S., Farina, J.M., Calvopina, M., & Martinez, C. (2004, July). Regional Biogeography of Shallow Reef Fish and Macro-invertebrate Communities in the Galapagos Archipelago. Journal of Biogeography, 31(7), 1107-1124.
It appears that one may divide the region of the galapagos into three main divisions, our area is the central/south eastern region, and then further into two regions.  Our region is characterized by a high level of diversity of fish in the surrounding waters.  While this is good, the competition that is created by the species not endemic o our shores is troublesome.  Also due to our high diversity necessitates that large numbers of fish are being caught which were not intended to be so.  We have to ask ourselves the question, however are we the cause of the fish coming from the mainland  are we just now recognizing a trend that has happened for a hundred years.

Mullner, A., Linsenmair, K. E., & Wikelski, M. (2004, August). Exposure to Ecotourism Reduces Survival and Affects Stress Response in Hoatzin Chicks (Opisthocomus Hoazin). Biological Conservation, 118(4), 549-558.
This study compared the mortality rates of hoatzin birds in disturbed communities with those in communities that were not touched by humans,  While they found the birth rate to be nearly identical and the survival rate as a hatchlings to be that same.  The divergence came when comparing the mortality rates of juveniles.  By far those in the disturbed areas exhibited a lower body mass,a higher tolerance to induced stress and a flush distance of less than 50% of normal.  While tis seems like a minimal problem, the problem arises when you make the conjecture that at differing stages in an animal's life that stress and experience has a different impact of him.  This would tend to suggest that we designate certain parts of the island for various age groups of animals and the presence of tourists. At the same time, however, how do you control the flow of animals from one area to the other without human intervention in the form of a wall that only requires more human intervention.  It would appear that the best solution would be infeasible because it requires more of what we are attempting to avoid.  The only factor we can attempt to control is the human one, thus it appears we are stuck trying to convince humans, indigenous and eco-tourists alike, not to "feed the animals" as the case may be.

Romero, L. M. (2004, May). Physiological Stress in Ecology: Lessons from Biomedical Research. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19(5), 249-255.
The levels of the ‘stress hormones’ cortisol and corticosterone are being used by ecologists as indicators of physiological stress in wild vertebrates.  The amplitude of hormonal response is assumed to correlate with the overall health of an animal and, by extension, the health of the population. However, much of what is known about the physiology of stress has been elucidated by the biomedical research community.  One characteristic of the vertebrate stress response is the release of glucocorticoid (GC)  (i.e. cortisol and corticosterone, depending upon the species: fish and most mammals generally release cortisol, whereas birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many rodents generally release corticosterone). The release of GCs as a measure of the stress response is being used increasingly in studies in ecology and conservation biology (e.g. [1, 2, 3 and 4]) to infer the ‘health’ of the population.It generally takes 3–5 min in mammals and birds (occasionally longer in other vertebrates; [53]) for this cascade to result in measurable increases in circulating GCs. Consequently, samples collected immediately after initiation of a stressor probably reflect prestressor concentrations. A typical method for assessing the ability of a wild animal to respond to stressors is to take an initial blood sample immediately after capture (to measure unstressed, or baseline, GC concentrations), hold the animal whilst subjecting it to a stressor (typically capture and restraint), and then take a second blood sample (to measure stress-induced GC concentrations).  Unfortunately, CG concentrations do not necessitate a poor level of health.  Basically it depends upon what environment the animal was born, if it was stressful, the animal will have a higher baseline and a greater tolerance for stress.
	This would appear to be one way to monitor a bio-process that could actually tell us much of the animal's inner workings in one single step that needs to be checked only once every 5-10 minutes to see sudden changes(of course more points of reference are better) but to maximize battery life and such, sacrifices must be made.

Brown, P.L., Hurley, C., Repucci, N., & Drugan, R. C. (2001, February). Behavioral Analysis of Stress Controllability Effects in a New Swim Stress Paradigm. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 68(2), 263-272.
Since most of studies in regard to stress are based upon the implied stress of electroshock and very few look into the response that uncontrolled stresses have upon the test animal.  Specifically, whether uncontrollable stress, in general, leads to behavioral as well as physiological deficits or whether many of the effects observed are unique to shock stress.  A test issued in 1977 revealed that rats exposed to uncontrollable, but not controllable, stress were able to learn shock avoidance, but the converse group were not.  This poses some interesting questions.  I had never considered confining certain specimens of every species to test as a control group to the remainder of their wild brethren, but this idea is not too far fetched.  At least it would give us a comparison between the completely not stimulated and survivalist stimulated of the species.  To preform this test to completeness, however, some of the subjects must also be killed to set a baseline for the hopelessly terminal.  That will make waves in the completely preservation oriented lot.  So we are therefore in need of striking a separation between what is necessary for valid results in science and what creates a huge problem with the environmentalists.

Faurie, A. S., Mitchell, D., & Labum, H. P. (2004, February). Peripartum Body Temperatures in Free-Ranging Ewes (Ovis Aries) and Their Lambs. Journal of Thermal Biology, 29(2). 115-122.
Rather than implementing a complicated nano-machine that performs a complex function that tell us a very specific fact that we must extrapolate to mean something more than what it is, look at trends in body functionality to determine if there is something seriously wrong with an animal.  Such patterns include body temperature gradients across the surface of the skin, perspiration levels, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. There are certainly other such trends across the spectrum of the animal and plant kingdoms, but those should be, generally, universally applicable to all fauna.  Such trends deserve further research and need to be validated before widespread implementation is put through, but on the surface this seems to be a promising reach onto what is truly a better way to engineer something.

Huang, G. T. (2003, July/August). Casting the Wireless Sensor Net. Technology Review, 106(6). 50.
Sensor nets are just in their infancy, but that doesn't mean they cannot yet do amazing things namely provide an extremely accurate depiction of micro-trends that until now have only been studied on the macro level. While this is amazing and useful, there have been no standards other than those proposed by the 100 or so competing companies and researchers vying for that position of the mastermind that made everything work.  There are also some intriguing ideas regarding dynamic sensors that move to accommodate their environment and maximize potential for their batteries and monitoring capabilities.  They also suggest that there be some interaction among the sensors to track, determine the validity of, categorize and store data for use at a later date.  This is the idea behind distributed computing.  However for our application and needs I must question whether we are in need of such a dynamic, diverse system.  Long ago I heard the line that, "The correct approach to any problem is to use the lowest grade of technology possible."  This sounds counter productive to everything our consumerist, high-tech society tells us but in reality it makes a lot of sense.  Why waste time and money on functionality that we don't need and won't use.  We need to look for simple solutions to complex problems, not complex solutions to simple ones.  We are not making Rube-Goldberg Devices for the scientific community.  Why employ silicate technology at all if an organic sensor works as well or better.  This is particularly true in response to cost.  The more high-tech the sensor we use the higher the cost goes and the more likely they are to be disturbed by inquisitive or thieving natives.  Of course there are things which require highly technical abilities to use, but let us minimize them to maximize our cost to benefit ratios.