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Fishwatch - Seafood glossary Category: Animals and Nature > Fish stocks Date & country: 29/01/2014, USA Words: 44

Trolling
A surface and subsurface fishing method in which lines with baits or lures are dragged by a vessel at a speed of 2

Sustainability
Ability to persist in the long-term.

Threatened Species
Species that are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

Trawl
Towed net consisting of a cone-shaped body closed by a bag or codend and extended at the opening by wings. It can be towed by one or two boats and, according to the type, used on the bottom or in midwater (pelagic).

Survey
Sampling, collecting, observing, or surveying fish or fishery resources, on board scientific research vessels, to increase scientific knowledge of fishery resources or their environment.

Stock Assessment
The process of collecting and analyzing biological and statistical information to determine the changes in the abundance of fishery stocks in response to fishing, and, to the extent possible, to predict future trends of stock abundance. Stock assessments are based on resource surveys; knowledge of the habitat requirements, life history, and behavior of the species; the use of environmental indices to determine impacts on stocks; and catch statistics. Stock assessments are used as a basis to assess and specify the present and probable future condition of a fishery.

Species
A group into which animals or plants are divided according to their shared characteristics.

Purse Seine
Nets characterized by the use of a purse line at the bottom of the net. The purse line enables the net to be closed like a purse and retain all the fish caught. Purse seines, which may be very large, are operated by one or two boats.

Rebuilding
Implementing management measures to allow a depleted stock, or population, to grow back to a predefined target level. A rebuilding plan is the document that describes these management measures.

Spawning
The release of eggs, fertilized or to be fertilized.

Protected Species
Refers to any species which is protected by either the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and which is under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries). This includes all threatened, endangered, and candidate species, as well as all marine mammals (warm-blooded animals that live in marine waters and breathe air directly

Pelagic
Inhabiting the water column as opposed to being associated with the sea floor; generally occurring anywhere from the surface to 1,000 meters.

Pots
Traps, designed to catch fish or crustaceans, in the form of cages or baskets of various materials (wood, wicker, metal rods, wire netting, etc.) and having one or more openings or entrances. Usually set on the bottom, with or without bait, singly or in rows, connected by ropes (buoy-lines) to buoys on the surface showing their position.

Processing
The preparation or packaging of fish to render it suitable for human consumption, retail sale, industrial uses, or long-term storage, including but not limited to cooking, canning, smoking, salting, drying, filleting, freezing, or rendering into meal or oil, but not heading and gutting unless additional preparation is done.

Overfishing
Refers to the rate of fishing. Overfishing occurs when the rate of removal from a stock is too high, i.e. more is being taken out than is being put in. A priority for the U.S. is ending overfishing so that all stocks can rebuild and be sustained at optimal levels.

Overfished
When the population is too low, or below a prescribed threshold. In the U.S., overfished populations are required to be managed under rebuilding plans that, over time, return the population to optimal levels.

Mesh Size
The size of holes in a fishing net. Minimum mesh sizes are often prescribed by regulations in order to avoid the capture of the young of valuable species before they have reached their optimal size for capture.

Metric Ton (t, mt)
1,000 kilograms, equivalent to 2,204.6 pounds.

Multispecies Fishery
Fishery in which more than one species is caught at the same time. Because of the imperfect selectivity of many fishing gears, many fisheries are

Longline
Fishing method using a horizontal mainline to which weights and baited hooks are attached at regular intervals. The horizontal mainline is connected to the surface by floats. The mainline can extend from several hundred yards to several miles and may contain several hundred to several thousand baited hooks.

Landings
The number or poundage of fish unloaded by commercial fishermen or brought to shore by recreational fishermen for personal use. Landings are reported at the locations at which fish are brought to shore.

Hook-and-Line
A type of fishing gear consisting of a hook tied to a line. Fish are attracted by bait that is placed on the hook, and are impaled by the hook when biting the bait.

Incidental Take
The take of protected species (such as marine mammals, sea turtles, or seabirds) during fishing.

Jigging
A method of fishing using lures on a vertical line that snag fish when they pass near. The line is moved up and down (jigged) by hand or mechanically.

Habitat
An ecological or environmental area where a particular species of animal, plant, or organism lives. It can be the natural environment of the organism or the physical environment that surrounds a population.

Harvest
The total number or weight of fish caught and kept from an area over a period of time.

High Seas
All waters beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (more than 200 nautical miles) of the United States and beyond any foreign nation

Fishing Gear
The equipment used for fishing (e.g. gillnet, hand line, harpoon, haul seine, longline, bottom and midwater trawls, purse seine, rod-and-reel, pots and traps). Each of these gears can have multiple configurations.

Fishing Season
The weeks or months during which it is legal to catch a kind of fish.

Fish Stock
The part of a fish population usually with a particular migration pattern, specific spawning grounds, and subject to a distinct fishery.

Gillnet
With this type of gear, the fish are gilled, entangled or enmeshed in the netting. These nets can be used either alone or, as is more usual, in large numbers placed in line. These nets may be used to fish on the surface, in midwater or on the bottom.

Ecosystem
The community of animals and plants interacting with the land, water, weather, and the surrounding human activities.

Endangered Species
Any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range, as defined in the Endangered Species Act.

Fishery
The combination of fish and fishermen in a region, the latter fishing for similar or the same species with similar or the same gear types.

Fishing Effort
The amount of fishing gear of a specific type used on the fishing grounds over a given unit of time (for example, hours trawled per day, number of hooks set per day, or number of hauls of a beach seine per day).

Demersal
Living in close relation with the bottom and depending on it. Cods, groupers, crabs, and lobsters are demersal resources.

Catch Limit
The weight limit on fish that fishermen can catch in a fishing season.

Catch Share
A fishery management program that dedicates a secure share of the total fishery catch to individuals, cooperatives, communities, or other entities. Catch share recipients are responsible for terminating fishing activity when their specific share is reached.

Catch
The total number (or weight) of fish caught by fishing operations. Catch includes all fish killed by the act of fishing, not just those landed.

Benthic
Of or pertaining to the seafloor (or bottom) of a water body.

Biomass
The total weight of a group or stock of living organisms (e.g. fish, plankton) or of some defined fraction of it (e.g. spawners) in an area, at a particular time.

Bycatch
Sometimes when fishermen are fishing for one species, they unintentionally catch other creatures that live near that species. These creatures may include other fish species, marine mammals, turtles, or even seabirds that are diving to catch their own food. Fishermen try to avoid bycatch because it takes time and energy away from catching their target species. Managers try to reduce bycatch and its impacts in a number of ways, such as working with fishermen to develop new gear that is more efficient in catching the target species and closing areas to fishing where or when the probability of bycatch is high.

Aquaculture
The breeding, rearing, and harvesting of plants and animals in natural and human-made water environments, including ponds, rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Also commonly known as fish or shellfish farming.

Angler
A person catching fish or shellfish with no intent to sell, i.e. a recreational fisherman.