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

AUGUST 2005 FINAL REPORT
Falcate—sickle-shaped and curved (refers to the dorsal fin of some cetaceans)
False crawl—an abandoned sea turtle nesting attempt or simply a U-shaped crawl from the ocean up the
beach, and then back to the water
Fathom—a marine unit of measure of water depth equaling 1.83 m
Fauna—animal life of a region
Fish aggregating device (FAD)—single or multiple floating structures that are connected to the ocean
floor by ballast or anchors; used to attract fish
Fishery—one or more stocks of fish that can be treated as a unit for purposes of conservation and
management and that are identified on the basis of geographical, scientific, technical, recreational and
economic characteristics, and any fishing for such stocks
Fishery management plan (FMP)—plan prepared by a Regional Fishery Management Council or by
NMFS (if a Secretarial plan) to manage fisheries
Fission—reproduction of some unicellular organisms by division of the cell into two more or less equal
parts
Fjord—a deep, steep-walled, U-shaped valley formed by erosion by a glacier and submerged with
seawater
Flatfish—members of the fish order Heterosomata which swims or lies on one side of its body; sides are
greatly flattened and compressed; mainly marine animals (e.g., flounders, soles)
Flank—side of the body; used mainly to refer to the side of the posterior half of the body
Fledging—the moment of flying at the end of the nesting period when young birds are more or less
completely feathered
Flipper—the flattened forelimb of a marine mammal
Flora—all the plant species of a given area
Flotsam—parts of a wrecked ship and goods lost in a shipwreck
Flukes—the horizontally spread tail of a cetacean or dugong
Foliose—leaflike
Forage—search for food
Foraminiferan—planktonic or benthic protozoan that possesses protective coverings usually composed
of calcium carbonate
Fore-arc—referring to the region ahead of the island arc (the convex side of the arc)
Fore reef—area from the seaward edge of the reef crest that slopes into deeper water to the landward
edge of the bank/shelf platform. Features not forming an emergent reef crest but still having a seawardfacing
slope that is significantly greater than the slope of the bank/shelf are also designated as fore reef
Fragmentation—type of asexual reproduction where a thallus breaks into two or more parts, each of
which forms a new thallus
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