A glossary of marine and fisheries terminology (abbreviations and definitions). The glossary is in alphabetical order. Navigation is provided by using the first letter from the list below.
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Abiotic
The non-living parts of the environment, e.g. rocks, climate, and pressure, that affect ecological functions.
Abundance
The number of individuals in a certain stock or population.
Aquaculture
A generic term describing cultivation of marine / freshwater species. This includes both plants and animals.
Benthic
Living on or in the seabed.
Benthos
Organisms dwelling on, or attached to, the seabed.
Biodiversity
The abundance and variety of species, their genetic make-up, and the ecosystems and natural communities they all occur in. Defined by the UN-CBD as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems."
Biologically extinct
When a species population density is so low that no partners are available for mating purposes.
Biomass
The accumulative total weight of all living organisms in a stock or resource.
Biotic
The living parts of the environment, e.g. plants, animals and fungi, that affect ecological functions.
Bottom trawling
A fishing method -also known as Benthic trawling- that involves dragging trawl nets along the sea floor. A highly non-selective fishing method with a large amount of bycatch and destruction in the trawler area. Can be performed by either a single or a combination of ships.
Bycatch
Unwanted, non-target, marine species caught while fishing for another species.
Commercially unviable
The fishing effort -taking in account costs, subsidies, offset prices etc- needed being too high to make an economic profit.
Discards
Marine species thrown back after capture. Normally, most of the discards can be assumed not to survive.
Fishing capacity
A concept not yet rigorously defined, and there are substantial differences of opinion as to how it should be defined and estimated. However, a working definition is the quantity of fish that can be taken by a fishing unit, for example an individual, community, vessel or fleet, assuming that there is no limitation on the yield from the stock.
Overfishing
Catching too much fish for the system to support. See: what is overfishing.
Pelagic trawling
A fishing method that involves towing a trawl net trough the water column. Can be performed by either a single or a combination of ships.
UN-CBD
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. See: biodiv.org.
Overfishing.org - All content, unless stated otherwise, are Copyright 2007 Pepijn Koster.
