the female enters, she deposits her eggs by shaking violently. Each shake allows more eggs to be deposited. Once all the eggs have been placed, the female must push her way through the wall of the nest to exit. During this process, studies have shown that the female makes acoustic noises, which is thought to advertise to sneaker males, as this can increase the proportion of eggs fertilized. After spawning, the male assumes protection of the eggs which hatch in 7–11 days. New hatched stickleback can wander from the nest, but the male gathers them into his mouth to deposit them back in the protective nest. Spawning usually ends around mid-July due to swift temperature changes in the water. The newly fertilized eggs are vulnerable to slight temperature changes. These fish grow rapidly during their first summer and typically reach sexual maturity by spring of the next year. Most adults die within the spawning season or shortly after causing them to be deemed an annual species. Current management The Nature Conservancy has listed the brook stickleback as level S3 (vulnerable). Though the numbers of this species aren't threatened, there is a potential for a decrease in population. However, no specific management practices are in place to protect the brook stickleback. This species does occur across the majority of the United States and Canada, which means it could be susceptible to increase pollution in the waterways. The brook stickleback lives in habitats of all sizes from lakes to streams to sinkholes. This diverse range of environments allows the species to cope with a variety of conditions. With such high plasticity of environmental stress, it can withstand certain levels of pollution, heavy metal density, and water turbidity. However, this does not mean the brook stickleback is immune from human induced changes to the ecosystem dynamic. The spawning season for this species is relatively short with high sensitivity to temperature changes. Global temperature changes are at an unprecedented rise, which could eventually lead to a global shift in water temperature. This could highly affect the spawning season for the brook stickleback species. Protection of this species should be on high priority because this species has led scientist in significant breakthroughs in sympatric and allopathic speciation. Management recommendations This biggest strength of this species success in its natural environment is the amount of successful colonized location after the last ice age with the northern