Glossary

Aesthetic Value: A value that an animal in its natural environment may have because people appreciate it for its appearance (Miller, 2015).

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Breeding season: A specific season of the year in which many animals, including mammals and birds, mate, which ensures that offspring are produced only at a certain time of the year (Breeding season, 2019).

 

By-Catch: Fishermen sometimes catch and discard animals they do not want, cannot sell, or are not allowed to keep. Bycatch can be fish, or animals such as dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and seabirds that become hooked or entangled in fishing gear (NOAA Fisheries). 

 

Calving: The process of giving birth to a calf (Dictionary.com, 2020).

 

Cetacean species: There are 90 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, known collectively as “cetaceans” (Whale and Dolphin Conservation).

 

Cetacean stranding: Marine mammals are stuck out of the water (International Whaling Commission, 2020).

 

Climate change: A broad term referring to long-term changes in any aspects of the earth’s climate, especially temperature and precipitation (Miller, 2015).

 

Commercial fishing: The activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries (ScienceDaily, 2020).

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Dehydration: Excessive loss of body water (MedicineNet, 2020). 

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Echolocation: A biological sonar used by several animal species (Scientific American, 1998).

 

Economy: System of production, distribution, and consumption of economic goods (Miller, 2015).

 

Ecosystem: One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment (Miller, 2015).

 

Ecotourism: Low impact travel to endangered and often undisturbed locations (Briney, 2019).

 

Endangered species: A wild species with so few individual survivors that the species could soon become extinct in all or most of its natural range (Miller, 2015).

 

Environment: All external conditions, factors, matter, and energy, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified system (Miller, 2015).

Extinction: The complete disappearance of a species from the earth. It happens when a species cannot adapt and successfully reproduce under new environmental conditions or when a species evolves into one or more new species (Miller, 2015).

 

Food chain: Series of organisms in which each eats or decomposes the preceding one (Miller, 2015).

 

Food Web: Complex network of many interconnected food chains and feeding relationships (Miller, 2015).

 

Gestation: The time between conception and birth (Healthline, 2020).

 

Global warming: The warming of the earth’s lower atmosphere (troposphere) because of increases in the concentrations of one or more greenhouse gases. It can result in climate change that can last for decades to thousands of years (Miller, 2015).

 

Habitat: Place or type of place where an organism or population of organisms lives (Miller, 2015).

 

HIPPCO: Acronym used by conservation biologists for the six most important secondary causes of premature extinction: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth (too many people consuming too many resources); Pollution; Climate Change; and Overexploitation.

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Instrumental Value: The value of an organism or species based on its usefulness to humans (Miller, 2015).

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Intrinsic Value: The belief that organisms/species have the right to exist, no matter their usefulness to humans (Miller, 2015).

 

Invasive species: Invasive species are animals or plants from another region of the world that don’t belong in their new environment. are types of nonnative species. Invasive species can lead to the extinction of native plants and animals, destroy biodiversity, and permanently alter habitats (NOAA, 2019).

 

K-Strategists: Species where organisms tend to reproduce later in life, have a small number of offspring, live longer, and raise their young (Miller, 2015).

 

Overfishing: Harvesting so many fish of a species, especially immature individuals, that not enough breeding stock is left to replenish the species and it becomes unprofitable to harvest them (Miller, 2015).

 

Poaching: Animal poaching is when an animal is killed illegally. It usually occurs when an animal possesses something that is considered valuable (Do Something, 2015).

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Pollutant: Pollutants are the contaminants that get introduced into the natural environment, beyond permitted limits, and cause deleterious effects to the inhabitants in a visible way (ScienceDirect, 2019).

 

Pollution: Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms (Miller, 2015).

 

Population size: Number of individuals making up a population’s gene pool (Miller, 2015).

 

Predator: Organism that captures and feeds on some or all parts of an organism of another species (the prey) (Miller, 2015).

 

Vulnerable: A vulnerable species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve (Definitions).

Whaling: The hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber (WWF, 2019).