| Aggregation |
may refer to the schooling which involves
behavioural grouping of animals |
| Aquaculture |
the cultivation of plants and animals in
water |
| Allowable quota or quota |
A share in a total allowable quota (TAC)
usually divided in a manner amongst those with a right to participate
in the fishery |
| Archival tag |
an implanted fish tag that detects and records
several environmental variables (e.g. water temperature) over time
|
| Australian Fishing Zone |
Australia has proclaimed a 200 nautical
mile wide zone around its coast within which it controls domestic
and foreign access to fish resources |
| Benthic |
associate with the bottom of the water body
|
| Billfish |
a collective term for a number of members
of the families Istiophoridae and Xiphiidae which have an upper jaw
elongated onto a bill, e.g. swordfish, marlin, sailfish, spearfish
|
| Biological or biodiversity |
the variety of life on earth at the genetic,
species, and ecosystem levels |
| Biomass |
an aggregate weight, at a particular time,
of fish (or other organisms) in a stock or in a fishery |
| Boatday |
a measure of fishing effort |
| Branch-line |
upper section of a long-line snood that
is connected to the mainline |
| By-catch or incidental catch |
those species taken in a fishery targeted
on other species, or a different size range of the same species; bycatch
may be commercially valuable or discarded |
| Catch |
the quantity of fish landed |
| Catch per unit Effort |
the number or weight of fish caught by a
unit of fishing effort, and is used as a measure of fish abundance
|
| Coastwatch |
program to monitor foreign vessels' activities
in Australian coastal waters by aerial surveillance. Administered
by the Australian Customs Service |
| Commercial value |
the landed value of the catch to fishers
|
| Commonwealth fishing boat licence |
a licence required by a person taking fish
in Commonwealth waters for commercial purposes |
| Continental Shelf |
seabed from the shore to the edge of the
continental slope |
| Depletion |
reducing the abundance of adult members of
a fish stock through fishing |
| Developing fishery |
a fishery in which experimental or feasibility
fishing is being undertaken to determine whether the resource can
support a commercially viable fishery
|
| Discards |
bycatch and damaged catches that have little
or no commercial value and are released alive or thrown away |
| Domestic fishery |
a fishery within the AFZ operated by Australian
fishers |
| Ecosystem |
systems of plants, animals and micro organisms
together with the non-living components of their environment. No ecosystem
is a closed system and the precise meaning of the term varies according
to the context |
| Effort |
the amount of fishing directed at particular
species |
| Environment |
the conditions under which an organism lives,
thus including all living or non- living factors and the activities
of humans |
| Environmental carrying capacity |
the amount of fish (or other marine organisms)
which an environment can support |
| Exclusive Economic Zone |
200 nautical mile zone from the coast |
| Exploitation rate |
the fraction of total fish deaths caused
by fishing usually expressed as an annual value |
| Fecundity |
the numbers of eggs (or offspring) produced
by a female; for fish species the number of eggs (or offspring) produced
usually increases as the size of the individual increases |
| Fish stock |
an interbreeding group of individuals of
a single species |
| Fishery |
a loosely defined term describing a range
of activities or characteristics associated with the exploitation
of a fish resource, a fishery can be defined by the fishing method
used, the types of fish taken and the area where fishing occurs |
| Fishing capacity |
the amount of fishing effort that a fishing
boat, or a fleet of fishing boats could exert if not constrained by
restrictive management measures |
| Fishing effort |
the amount of fishing activity undertaken.
It is measured by the total time spent fishing combined with quantity
of gear used, for example the number of hooks, number of times the
net is shot per day, etc |
| Fishing mortality |
mathematical expression for the death rate
of fish due to fishing |
| Fish stock |
synonymous with `unit stock' or population.
An interbreeding group of individuals of a single species |
| Fully exploited |
an appraisal of the status of a stock which
suggests that current catches are sustainable and close to optimum
levels |
| Game fishing |
recreational angling conducted under the
auspices of clubs or associations affiliated with Game Fishing Association
of Australia |
| Gear restriction |
a type of input control used as a management
tool whereby the amount and/or type of fishing gear used by fishers
in a particular fishery is restricted by law |
| accurately determine a vessel's position
and course |
| Index of Abundance |
a relative measure of the abundance of a
stock e.g. a time series of catch per unit effort data |
| Individual Transferable Quotas |
a share in a total allowable catch (TAC);
the share being tradeable |
| Input controls |
management controls on type and/or amount
of fishing as a means of limiting catches |
| Joint Venture |
collaborative fishing operation usually involving
two companies from different countries |
| Knot |
one knot is equivalent to 1.852 km per hour
|
| Latent capacity |
fishing capacity that is not currently deployed
in a fishery |
| Limited entry |
controls on the number and size of boats
allowed to operate in a fishery |
| Logbook |
an official record of catch and effort data
made by fishers. In many fisheries, logbooks are compulsory as a condition
of license |
| Long-line |
a fishing gear in which short lines carrying
hooks are attached to a longer main line at regular intervals and
are suspended horizontally at a predetermined depth with the help
of surface floats the main lines can be 150 km and have several thousand
hooks |
| Maximum sustainable yield |
the greatest yield or catch that can be removed
from a resource each year without impairing the ability of the resource
to produce at that level and renew itself |
| Migration |
systematic movement of individuals of a stock
from one place to another |
| Mortality |
rate of deaths from various causes |
| Mother ship |
in some fisheries catching vessels are serviced
on the fishing grounds by a mother ship to which they land their catches
and which may process those catches before storing them for transport
or transhipping |
| Natural mortality |
deaths of fish from all causes except fishing
|
| Nautical mile |
a maritime measure of distance, originally
equal to one minute of latitude at the equator (1 nm is equivalent
to 1.852 km) |
| Observer data |
fisheries information collected on board
fishing vessels by independent observers |
| Oceanic |
to do with the open ocean waters beyond
the edge of the continental shelf |
| Offshore Constitutional Settlement |
a series of legislative and administrative
agreements designed to rationalise jurisdictional arrangements for
a number of complex offshore constitutional issues, particularly legislative
responsibilities between the Commonwealth and the various States (including
the Northern Territory) in respect of petroleum, mining for minerals,
fisheries, historical shipwrecks, marine parks, crimes at sea, and
the regulation of shipping and navigation |
| Offshore waters |
tend to be more oceanic waters but may relate
to the outer continental shelf waters |
| Output control |
constraints on the level of catch, for example,
a total allowable catch quota |
| Overexploited |
current fishing levels may not be sustainable
or yield in the longer term may be higher if reduced in the short
term |
| Overfishing |
any level of fishing greater than a defined
optimum. Growth overfishing occurs when the losses due to natural
and fishing mortality exceed the gains due to recruitment and growth
during the same period. Recruitment overfishing occurs when the spawning
stock has been reduced to a level at which recruitment is significantly
reduced |
| Parameter |
characteristic feature or measure of some
aspect of a stock usually expressed as a numerical value |
| Parental biomass |
the weight of the adult population of a
species |
| Pelagic |
inhabiting the sea surface or midwater rather
than the sea floor |
| Productivity |
when applied to fish stocks the term productivity
gives an indication of the birth, growth and death rates of a stock
|
| Purse sein |
a fishing method capable of harvesting large
quantities of schooling pelagic fish by surrounding the school with
a net. A line which passes through rings on the bottom of the net
can be tightened to close the net so that the fish are unable to escape
|
| Quota |
amount of catch allocated - can refer to
a fishery as a whole or to the amount allocated to an individual or
company |
| Recreational fishing |
fishing activity pursued primarily for leisure;
the catch normally being kept or personal consumption |
| Recruitment |
the entry of new fish into that part of
a stock which is subject to capture by the gear used in the fishery
|
| Risk Analysis |
analysis that evaluates the possible outcomes
of various harvesting strategies or management options |
| Sashimi |
refers to a Japanese method of presenting
and eating raw seafood |
| Seasonal closure |
the closure of a fishing ground for a defined
period of time, used as a tool in the management of a fishery frequently
to protect stock during a spawning season |
| Spatial and temporal closures |
area and seasonal closures of a fishery
|
| Spawning stock biomass |
the total weight of all mature fish in a
population |
| Species |
group of animals or plants having common
characteristics and able to breed together to produce fertile offspring
so that they maintain their separateness from other groups |
| Statutory Fishing Rights |
rights to participate in a limited entry
fishery |
| Stock |
stocks are relatively homogeneous and self-contained
populations whose losses by emigration and gains by immigration are
negligible in relation to the rates of growth and mortality |
| Straddling stock |
normally used to describe a stock which
is distributed across one or more jurisdictional boundaries |
| Sustainable development |
this statement adopts the definition given
by the Brundlandt Commission (Our Common Future, 1987) that
development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present generation
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs |
| Sustainable yield |
catch that can be removed over an indefinite
period without causing the stock to be depleted |
| Tagging |
marking or attaching a tag to an individual
so that it or they can be identified on recapture; used for the study
of fish growth, movement, migration and stock structure and size |
| Target |
the particular species sought by the fisher
|
| Total allowable catch |
the catch allowed to be taken from a managed
fishery in accordance with a management plan. The TAC may be allocated
in specific quantities or proportions referred to as quotas |
| Value-adding activities |
activities to increase the value of the product
in the catching (handling and treatment), processing (filleting, smoking,
freezing, canning, made-up dishes) and marketing sectors (quality
associated with premium brands, portion packs, and when appropriate
live product) |
| Yield |
catch weight |