Marine Resources Assessment for the Marianas Operating ... - SPREP

AUGUST 2005 FINAL REPORT
Clutch—a total number of eggs from one nesting
Cnidarians⎯the phylum of animals that includes corals, sea fans, sea anemones, hydroids, and jellyfish;
known for the stinging cells on their tentacles; these animals exhibit two body types, polyps (may be
attached or planktonic) or medusa, sometimes at different periods of one species development
Coast—where land and water meet
Coastal water—water that is along, near, or relating to a coast
Coda—a patterned series of 3 to 20 clicks lasting about 0.5 to 2.5 sec, used by sperm whales for
communication
Cold-core ring—an eddy or circular current of warm water; in the North Atlantic Ocean, the water in coldcore
rings circulates cyclonically (counterclockwise)
Colonial—nesting in groups or colonies rather than in isolated pairs
Colony—highly integrated group of animals; herein refers specifically to birds and land-breeding
pinnipeds
Commensal—relationship between two organisms of different species in which one benefits and the
other neither benefits nor is harmed
Commercial fishing—the stock of fisheries where fish and other seafood resources are taken for the
purpose of marketing them
Common—in the case of sea turtles, common means that sea turtles have been recorded in all, or nearly
all, proper habitats, but some areas of the presumed habitat are occupied sparsely or not at all and/or the
region regularly hosts large numbers of the species
Concentrated occurrence—a subarea of a species’ expected occurrence, where there is the highest
likelihood of encountering that species; based primarily on concentrated sightings and habitat preference
Continental margin—the boundary or transition between the continents and the ocean basins that
consists of the physiographic provinces of the continental shelf, continental slope, and continental rise
Continental rise—the province of the continental margin with a sloping seabed (1:100-1:700 gradient
change) and a generally smooth surface, which lies between the abyssal plains and continental slope
Continental shelf—the province of the continental margin with a gently seaward-sloping seabed (1:1,000
gradient change) extending from the low-tide line of the shoreline to 100 to 200 m water depth where
there is a rapid gradient change
Continental shelf break—the area where the slope of the seabed rapidly changes from gently sloping
(1:1,000) to steeply sloping (1:40) where the continental shelf transitions into the continental slope
Continental slope—the province of the continental margin with a relatively-steeply sloping seabed (1:6 to
1:40 gradient change) that begins at the continental shelf break (usually around 100 to 200 m) and
extends down to the continental rise; along many coasts of the world, the slope is furrowed by deep
submarine canyons
Contour—a line of connected points of equal value on a surface
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