National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). 1999. Fisheries of the United States, 1998. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 1997. Hook Line and Sinking. Norse, Elliot ed. 1993. Global Marine Biological Diversity. Roberts, Kenneth, Jerald W. Horst, John E. Roussel, and Joseph A. Shepard. 1991. Defining Fisheries: A User’s Glossary . [Available o [..]

This is a type of hook-and-line method described above in which several unconnected lines, each hooked and baited, are slowly dragged behind the vessel.

A trawl is a sock-shaped net with a wide mouth tapering to a small, pointed end (sometimes called the cod end) that is towed behind a vessel at any depth. This method is more indiscriminate than others because the net scoops up everything in the trawl’s path.

Fishing by means of devices such as cages that trap fish in a confined environment. Traps are often designed and baited to catch a particular species, as in a crab pot, lobster pot, tuna trap, and fyke net. There is little to no bycatch associated with traps.

The total catch allowed to be taken from a resource in a specified period (usually a year), as defined in the management plan. The TAC may be allocated to the stakeholders in the form of quotas as specific quantities or proportions. (FAO)

Traditionally, the territorial sea extended out to three nautical miles from the shore of a coastal nation. Why three nautical miles? This was the distance a cannon could be fired, and thus the distance that a nation could defend itself. With the signing of the Law of the Sea, territorial waters were extended out to twelve nautical miles. In the U. [..]

The 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act amended the habitat provisions of the Magnuson Act. The re-named Magnuson-Stevens Act calls for direct action to stop or reverse the continued loss of fish habitats. Toward this end, Congress mandated the identification of habitats essential to managed species and measures to conserve and enhance this habitat. The [..]

The technical definition of a stock is an interbreeding sub-population of a species, reproductively isolated to some extent from other populations. Used as a unit for fishery management, however, “stock” refers to a specific population or group of populations of one or more species.

Recirculating systems are closed, or semi-closed, aquaculture systems in which most of the water is recycled through the system and very little is discharged. Water that would otherwise be discharged with wastes is treated and reused within the system. Recirculating systems limit other environmental impacts, such as escapes and disease interactions [..]

These are suspended, or off-bottom, aquaculture methods used to rear mollusks such as oysters. Farming mollusks with these techniques generally results in little environmental impact because no additional feed is needed and little waste is produced. Since the mollusks are not farmed on the ocean bottom, they do not need to be collected by dredging, [..]