Glossary
A – C | D – G | H – M | N – R | S – Z
Adaptive Management: The process of changing a management strategy in response to measuring its success.
Apex Predator: A predator at the top of the food chain, upon which no other organism preys.
Bathymetry: Measurement of the depth of the sea floor below sea level.
BOFFF: The abbreviation for Big Old Fat Fecund Female. BOFFFs are more biologically valuable due to their age and reproductive abilities, and removing them from the system is more detrimental than removing younger, non-reproductive fish.
Buffer Zone: The region near the border of a protected area; a transition zone between areas managed for different objectives (European Environment Agency).
Cascading Impacts: When one direct impact has an effect on something seemingly unrelated (e.g., Taking out all the herbivorous fishes from an area (direct effect) leaves the algae to grow unchecked and take over the reef leaving it uninhabitable for corals (indirect effect).
Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE): A metric to estimate fish abundance; the number of fish caught per unit time/effort.
Catch Quota: A tool often employed by managers of large fisheries, intended to conserve the resource. A total allowable catch limit is set for a fishing season, and when fishers reach this quota, the fishery is closed. This method can produce a negative effect on the resource as fishers “race” to meet the quota, often using wasteful or destructive methods to extract as many fish as quickly as possible.
Catchment: An area that catches water.
Circle Hook: Fishing hook where the hook tip is a 90 degree angle from the shaft which minimizes hooking fish in the throat or gut.
Connectivity: Describes the extent to which populations in different parts of a species’ range are linked by the exchange of eggs, larval recruits or other propagules, juveniles, or adults; as well as the ecological linkages associate with adjacent and distant habitats.
Destructive Fishing: Using cyanide, dynamite, or other methods that cause coral breakage to kill all reef life (including corals, other invertebrates, as well as unmarketable species) for short-term profits.
Economic Overfishing: Occurs when fishery resources are not being used in the most efficient manner. The limit of economic overfishing is commonly defined as the point at which fishing effort exceeds the total profit of the fishery, i.e., the amount of fish caught does not pay for the costs of fishing.
Ecosystem Overfishing: Occurs when organisms are removed at such a rate that the composition of the ecosystem is changed significantly, often leading to detrimental effects on the entire system.
Ecotourism: Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. (The International Ecotourism Society).
Extractive (Non-Extractive): Taking something out of an environment versus leaving it in place. For example, food fishing is extractive, but catch and release fishing, snorkeling and diving, which leave the fishes in the environment, are non-extractive.
Fecund (Fecundity): Natural level of fertility (e.g., Most adult animals are sufficiently fecund to replace themselves many times over).
FSA: Fish Spawning Aggregation is an aggregation of fishes gathered for the purpose of reproduction, with individual densities higher than those normally found during non-reproductive periods.
Gamete: A reproductive cell (e.g., spermatozoa and ova).
Geomorphology: The study of the characteristics, origins and development of land-forms.
Gonadosomatic Index (GSI): The ratio of fish gonad weight to body weight; specifically (Gonad weight/Body weight) x 100 = GSI.
Gonochore: A species in which two distinct sexes occur.
Gonopore: The opening through which sperm and/or eggs are released.
GPS: Global Positioning System; An electronic unit that receives satellite signals that tell your specific position in latitude and longitude.
Gravid: Female animals carrying young or eggs.
Growth Overfishing: Occurs when the rate of fishing produces a loss in biomass of the stock that is greater than the biomass gained due to growth. It is also used to describe the situation where too many small fish are being harvested from a stock, and the fish are removed before they reach a size at which the maximum growth and productivity would be obtained from the stock.
GSA: Grouper Spawning Aggregation.
Hermaphroditic: Containing both male and female reproductive organs.
Hyperdepletion: Refers to a situation where catch per unit effort is actually underestimating abundance, i.e., fish abundance is higher than the metric indicates.
Hyperstability: Refers to a situation where catch per unit effort is overestimating abundance, i.e., fish abundance is lower than the metric indicates.
Indicator: An indicator is a measured quantity that can describe a certain aspect of a system. Changes in an indicator over time may be a sign of changes in an ecosystem.
Integrated Coastal Management: A continuous and dynamic process by which decisions are taken for the sustainable use, development, and protection of coastal and marine areas and resources (NOAA).
J Hook: Fishing hook shaped like the letter “J” where the hook tip is parallel to the hook shaft.
LRFFT: Live Reef Food Fish Trade; an international trade in live reef food fish with demand centers largely in Asia and source countries for preferred reef fishes in SE Asia, the western Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Macroscopic: Large scale.
Malthusian Overfishing: An expression that was coined to describe a situation that may occur when fishing levels are too intense for a fishery to be sustainable.
Marine Protected Area (MPA): Any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment (IUCN definition).
Marine Protected Area Network: An MPA network can include zones that are designed for different levels of use and extraction. For example, within the MPA network, no-take zones can be strategically placed to prohibit harvest. Multiple-use MPA zoning, including no-take areas, provides a way to accommodate multiple uses (recreational fishing, commercial fishing, tourism, etc.) and balances the trade-offs between sustainable use and conservation.
Marine Tenure: Locally specified entitlements to marine territories and resources claimed and exercised by the ‘guardians’ of those territories and resources.
Migration Corridors: Many fish and large marine animals (i.e., whales, predatory fish, turtles, etc.) follow set routes when they migrate (for feeding, nesting, birthing, or breeding purposes) from one area to another. These routes are referred to as migration corridors.
Milt: Sperm and associated secretions.
Morphometric Measurements: The measurements taken of an animal pertaining to its outer structure and form (e.g., Length, width, fork length, weight).
Multispecies FSA: A Fish Spawning Aggregation containing multiple species spawning in the same area over time.
NGO: Non-Governmental Organization.
Oocyte: An egg at a stage before maturation.
Otolith: A calcareous structure found in the inner ear of fish and involved in orientation and hearing. In some species, distinctive growth lines can provide information on fish age because the otolith grows in proportions to body growth.
Patriarch Fishers: Fishers that typically have a unique and historical perspective on the location, timing, and composition of fish spawning aggregations, as well as the effects of fishing on FSAs.
Pelagic Environment: Open ocean environments (as opposed to near reefs).
Precautionary Approach: An approach that tends towards a cautious and safe management approach (especially when data are lacking).
Predictive Power: The ability to foresee conditions based on existing information.
Promontory: An area of seafloor or reef jutting out creating an elbow shaped reef.
Protogynous Hermaphrodites: Are species that initially mature and reproduce as females and subsequently alter their sex to reproduce as males. Grouper and wrasses, among other families, share this characteristic.
Protogyny: In a colonial or hermaphroditic organism having the female gonads or individuals mature before the male ones.
Recruitment Overfishing: Occurs when the spawning biomass of the population is reduced such that the number of larvae and recruits produced are not great enough to replenish the population.
Recruitment Success: Refers to the number of fish larvae per amount of spawning fish biomass that successfully establish themselves on a reef and contribute as individuals to the fish population. Because most reef fishes release their efforts into the pelagic environment, the larvae are subject to a number of factors such as: oceanographic currents, tides, food availability, and predation. These factors are wide-ranging and variable, and therefore the number of larvae that can successfully recruit back to a reef may differ significantly from year to year.
Ripe/Running: Gonad condition when eggs are hydrated (occurring within 12 hours of spawning and often visible by distended belly and/or leaking gametes).
Selective Removal: Targeting a specific size, age, or type of fish to remove from the population.
Self Recruitment Level: The percent of larvae that return to the reef where they were spawned, or the proportion of young arriving into a local population that are products of local production.
Sink Area: The area to which eggs and larvae disperse and settle.
Site Fidelity: Returning to the same area over time.
Source of Seed: The area from which fertilized eggs and larvae are exported in sufficient quantity to maintain the local population and to supplement populations down current. (e.g., spawning aggregation)
Spawning Stupor: A change in behavior in fish while spawning. While they are still aware of their surrounding they often let divers or fishers come into close range while spawning.
Spent: Gonad condition after spawning, flattened and flaccid, most gametes already expelled.
Sperm Limitation: Selective fishing pressure that skews sex rations (typically selective removal of males) within the FSA.
Stakeholder: Any person with a vested interest in a the area or natural resource.
Subsistence: Conducting activities in a way that will sustain life of those affiliated with the activity (as opposed to exploitation).
Sustainable: Conducting activities in a way that can continue over the long term, as opposed to depleting resources over the short term.
Transect: Typically a straight line across an area along which ecological measurements are taken.
Transient Aggregations: Characterized by individuals that migrate over long distances and over a short reproductive season.