Glossary

Futures of Seafood Glossary

 

Aquaculture The farming of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and aquatic plants in controlled environments.
Backbone The part of a longline from which branch lines are run.
Bag limit The maximum number of fish of a particular species that can be legally taken by a recreational fisher in a day.
Benthic Relating to, or occurring on, the bottom of a body of water.  Used in wild catch fishing to describe fishing gear that contacts the seabed.
Bioregion A land and water territory whose limits are defined by geographical distribution of biophysical attributes and ecological systems.
Branch lines Shorter lines off a backbone or longline to which hooks, pots or traps are attached.
By-catch Catch taken in wild catch fisheries that is discarded.  Often but not always relating to ETPs.
By-product Catch taken in wild catch fisheries that is retained.  Generally referring to lesser caught species.
Bycatch Reduction Device (BRD) Equipment installed in fishing nets to allow unwanted catch to escape.
Co-management An agreement used in wild catch fishing that is generally formal through which fishery managers delegate some of their responsibilities usually to industry representative groups.
Demersal Relating to, or occurring on, the bottom of a body of water.  Used in wild catch fishing to describe fishing gear that contacts the seabed.
Dredge fishing Use of a single strong rigid usually metal cage towed by a vessel with warps.
Dropline A fishing method using a main vertical line with branch lines and baited hooks, weighted at the bottom.
Estuary The area where a freshwater river or stream meets the ocean, creating a transition zone between river and maritime environments.
ETP An acronym for three categories of species in declining conservation concern (endangered, threatened, protected).  Also known as ‘TEP’ in parts of Australia.  In Australia generally species that are recognised under the EPBC Act as:
·         one of six categories of “threatened” species
·         migratory species recognised under international agreements including CITIES, CAMBA, JAMBA. ROKAMBA, ACAP
·         Division 3: whales and other cetaceans
·         Division 3 subdivision A: regulated native specimens not exempted
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) The sea zone over which Australia has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, extending 200 nautical miles from the coast.
Finfish A term describing bony fishes, cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, rays etc) that separates them from invertebrates.
Fishery Closure Areas set aside to manage the impact of fisheries on habitats and species.  Existing in Australia under State and Federal legislation.
Fishery surveys A process to collect the biological, economic or social performance of a fishery.
Ghost fishing Lost fishing gear posing a risk to life
Gillnetting A static monofilament net  designed to entangle fishing, often by its gills or pectoral fins.
High seas Areas of ocean beyond national jurisdiction, not part of any country’s exclusive economic zone.
Hook & line fishing A form if fishing that relies on a fishing bighting a hook because it is attracted by artificial lures and jigs or bait.
Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) A type of output control that gives individuals or companies the right to harvest a specified percentage of the TAC.
Input controls Limitations on the amount of fishing effort, restrictions on the number, type and size of fishing vessel, or on fishing areas or times in wild catch fisheries
Interaction A term generally used in wildcatch fisheries to describe contact between an ETP and fishing gear or vessel that causes stress, harm or death.
Knots Speed in nautical miles per hour (1.852km/hour)
Longline fishing A commercial fishing technique using a long main line with baited hooks attached at intervals via shorter branch lines.
Management arrangements A collection of controls that combine to manage a fishery or aquaculture operation.
Mariculture Marine farming or the cultivation of marine organisms in their natural environment.
Marine Parks Areas set aside to conserve marine habitats.  Existing in Australia under State and Federal legislation.  Also called Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Mitigation Actions taken to reduce the severity of interactions with ETPs, by-products and by-catch
Nursery area Areas where juvenile fish or other marine species concentrate, usually offering food and protection from predators.
Output controls Limitations on the weight, number, allowable size, sex or reproductive condition of fish in wild catch fisheries
Overfished A stock that has been reduced below a defined reference point, often the point at which maximum sustainable yield can be produced.
Pelagic Relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea but also used in wild catch fishing to describe nets that do not touch the seabed.
Pot/trap A type of wild catch fishing that uses bait or shelter to attract catch into a device from which it cannot, or choses not to, escape.  The terms are interchangeable.
Prawn trawling A method of fishing where nets are pulled through the water behind a boat to catch prawns.
Purse seine A fishing method using a large wall of netting to encircle schools of fish, with the bottom of the net drawn together to prevent fish escaping.
Recruitment The number of fish surviving to enter the fishery or a specific life stage such as breeding or harvest size.
Rock lobster Also known as crayfish or spiny lobster, a valuable commercial species harvested mainly on Australia’s southern coastlines.
Scallop dredging A fishing method that involves towing a dredge along the seabed to collect scallops.
Seine net A type of net that catches fish by surrounding them.
Southern Bluefin Tuna A highly migratory and commercially valuable species managed under specific quotas and international agreements in Australia.
Spawning The release or deposition of eggs and sperm, usually into water, by aquatic animals.
Stock assessment The process of collecting and analyzing biological information to determine the changes in abundance of fishery stocks in response to fishing.
Sustainable yield The level of harvest that can be taken from a fish stock indefinitely without reducing the stock’s productive capacity.
TACC Total Allowable Commercial Catch – the portion of a TAC allocated specifically to commercial fishing.
Total Allowable Catch (TAC) The catch limit set for a particular fishery, generally for a year or a fishing season.
Trawling A form of fishing that uses a trawl net or connected trawl nets, open at one end and closed at the other, towed behind a fishing vessel by two or three steel cables called warps
Turtle Excluder Device (TED) A specialized BRD designed to prevent the capture of sea turtles in trawl nets.
Warp A warp is a line that moves a vessel.  In wildcatch fishing it is used to describe a line that pulls fishing gear.