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Government of Western Australia - Department of Fisheries

Glossary - F

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FAO
Food and Agriculture Organisation (of the United Nations)

FAS
Fisheries Adjustment Scheme

Fauna
All the animal life in a given area.

FBL
See Fishing Boat Licence

Fecundity
Number of eggs an animal produces each reproductive cycle; the potential reproductive capacity of an organism

Feral species
A domesticated species that has become wild.

Fertilisation
The union of male and female gametes in sexual reproduction.

FHPA
Fish Habitat Protection Area

Filter
Usually a porous substance through which water is passed for cleaning.

Filter feeder
An animal that strains food such as plankton from water using a sieve-like structure in its mouth.

Finfish
Refers to sharks, some rays and bony fishes

Fish
Large group of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates of the superclass Pisces, characteristically having fins, gills, and a streamlined body.

Fishes
Refers to more than one type of fish.

Fish Habitat Protection Area (FHPA)
An area set aside under section 115 as a fish habitat protection area.

Fish kill
Mass and sudden death of fish or aquatic animals, usually in a restricted area.

Fish stock
Fish available for fishing

Fisher
A person who fishes.

Fishery
The collective enterprise of taking fish, usually with reference to the species, year or area involved.

Fisheries Management
The combinations of rules and regulations used to protect, conserve the aquatic environment and ensure sustainability of aquatic organisms.

Fishing boat licence
A fishing boat licence means a licence (granted under the regulations) authorising a person to use a boat for commercial fishing.

Fishing controls
Controls on the taking of animals to limit catches (e.g. size of boat and gear, seasonal closures, limiting licences).

Fishing effort
Amount of fishing occurring, usually described in terms of gear type and frequency or period for which it is in use.

Fishing gear
Any equipment, implement, device, apparatus or other thing used or designed for use or in connection with fishing. Includes rods, handlines, nets and pots.

Fishing mortality
A mathematical expression of the rate of deaths of fish due to fishing.  Fishing mortality is often expressed as a rate that indicates the percentage of the population caught in a year.  E.g. a fishing mortality rate of 0.2 implies that approximately 20 per cent of the population will be removed in a year due to fishing.

Fishing unit
Usually a fishing unit means a single fishing boat, for example a rock lobster boat, but the term is also used to describe a group of boats which together make a fishing unit.  For example, the combination of a mother or lead boat and dinghies used in an estuarine fishery is regarded as a single fishing unit.  In some cases where a boat is not used, the fishing unit is the individual fisherman, e.g. in the Marine Aquarium Managed Fishery.

FLAMS
Fisheries Licensing and Management System

Floodplain
A strip of relatively flat and normally dry land alongside a stream, river, or lake that is covered by water during a flood.

Flood tide
Incoming or rising tide.

Flora
All the plant life in a given area.

Flotsam
Objects or debris that float on the surface of the sea.

Food chain
The path that nutrients and energy follow as they are transferred through an ecosystem.

Food or energy pyramid
Graphical representation of the structure of a food chain, depicted as a pyramid having a broad base formed by producers and tapering to a point formed by end consumers.

Food web
Several interconnected food chains in an ecosystem.

Force
Any influence that produces a change in the velocity of an object.

FRAB
Fisheries Research Advisory Body

FRDC
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

FRDF
Fisheries Research and Development Fund

Freezing point
The temperature at which a liquid freezes.

Fresh water
Consisting of water that is not salty.

Fringing coral reef
Coral reefs that appear at the shoreline of continents or islands.

FRMA
Fish Resources Management Act 1994

Fry
Young fishes; newly hatched.

Full moon
A phase of the lunar cycle where the moon is fully illuminated, occurring when the sun and moon are on the opposite sides of earth.

Fully exploited
An appraisal of the status of a stock which suggests that current catches are sustainable and close to optimum levels (the definition of which may vary between fisheries, e.g. catches are close to maximum sustainable yield).  In a fully exploited fishery, increases in fishing effort above current levels may lead to overfishing.

Functional
Pertaining to the function of an organ or part, or to the functions in general.

Fusiform
Streamlined, torpedo-shaped body.

FV
Fisheries Volunteer

 

Last modified: 11/09/2012 11:16 AM

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