Glossary

ACAP: Agreement for Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels
AGS: Alto Golfo Sustentable
AOU: American Ornithologists’ Union
ASM: American Society of Mammalogists
ATOC: Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate
AVHRR: advanced very-high-resolution radiometers
B2B: Baja California to Bering Sea Region (as an area or initiative)
BCC: Birds of Conservation Concern
BC: Building Capacity
Bathymetry: The depth of water and the ocean floor relative to sea level. Bathymetric charts are the submerged equivalent of an above-water topographic map.
Benthic: Defining a habitat or organism found on a freshwater or marine bottom (compare with Pelagic).
Benthos: The collection of organisms (plants and animals) living on or closely associated with the bottom of a body of water, especially the ocean.
Bioaccumulation: The concentration of long-lived compounds in the flesh and organs of organisms that ingest prey that have ingested those compounds themselves.
Biodiversity (biological diversity): The variety of organisms considered at all levels, from genetic variants belonging to the same species through arrays of species to arrays of genera; families, and still higher taxonomic levels; includes the variety of ecosystems, which comprise both communities of organisms within particular habitats and the physical conditions under which they live.
Bycatch: Fish and other marine organisms that are captured incidentally in a fishery, which are not sold or kept for personal use.
CA: Conservation Actions
CCAR: Colorado Center for Atmospheric Research
CEC: Commission for Environmental Cooperation
CEDO: Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (Centro Intercultural para el Estudio de los Desiertos y los Océanos)
CI: Conservation International
CICESE: Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada) (Mexico)
CILA: International Boundary and Water Commission (Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas
CIRVA: International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita
CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
Conabio: National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of the Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad)
CONAF: Chile’s Corporacion Nacional Forestal
Conagua: National Water Commission, Semarnat (Comisión Nacional del Agua)
Conanp: Mexican National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas)
Conapesca: National Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission, Sagarpa (Comisión Nacional de Pesca y Acuacultura, Sagarpa)
Conservation: The sustainable use as well as protection, maintenance, rehabilitation, restoration, recovery and enhancement of ecosystems, natural habitats and viable populations of species in their natural surroundings
COSEWIC: Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
CWS: Canadian Wildlife Service
DDT: dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
Demersal: Part of the ocean or lake that comprises the water column that is near to (and is significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone. The term can also refer to all species that live on, or in close proximity to, the seabed. Fishing gear that works near the seabed also receives the term demersal.
DFO: Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada)
DOI: United States Department of the Interior
ECS: European Cetacean Society
Ecological Scorecards: Ecological scorecards are a tool for understanding ecosystem health, contributing to the improvement of science and evidence-based ocean stewardship, and increasing public involvement in MPA management. This assessment tool, applied broadly, could further support systematic environmental monitoring for improved regional and continental scale conservation strategies.
Ecoregion: An ecoregion is a general term used to describe an ecosystem unit or area. An ecoregion is a large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities that (a) share a large majority of their species and ecological dynamics, (b) share similar environmental conditions, and (c) interact ecologically in ways that are critical for their long-term persistence. It may range from global size units through to site or local level systems.
Ecosystem: A dynamic complex of organisms (including humans), and the physical environment (soils/bottom type, water, geology etc.) interacting as a functional unit. They may vary greatly in size and composition and display functional relationships within and between systems; be relatively pristine through to extensively altered by human activities/uses; be aquatic or terrestrial; and be barren or highly productive.
Ecosystem service: Processes by which the environment produces resources such as clean water, habitat for fisheries, and pollination—often taken for granted by many.
EEZ: Exclusive economic zone. A zone 200 nautical miles (370 km) wide along the coast where nations have exclusive rights to any resource. It was initiated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Endemic: A species or race native to a particular place and found only there. By contrast, see indigenous.
Endemism: The ecological state of being unique to a particular place, due to physical, biological, and climatic factors.
EPA: US Environmental Protection Agency
ESA: Endangered Species Act
ESR: ecologically significant region
Eutrophic/Eutrophication: A body of water with a high supply of nutrients and high productivity. The nutrient load is often excessive and derived from anthropogenic sources and the system is usually characterized by algal blooms and, at times, hypoxia (compare with Oligotrophic).
Exotic species: A species that is not native to an area and has been introduced intentionally or unintentionally by humans; not all exotics become successfully established. (also see Invasive).
Extinction: The termination of any lineage of organisms, from subspecies to species and higher taxonomic categories from genera to phyla. Extinction can be local, in which one or more populations of a species or other unit vanish but others survive elsewhere (also see Extirpated), or global, in which all the populations vanish.
Extirpated: Status of a species or population that has completely vanished from a given area but which continues to exist in some other location (also see Extinction).
FDA: US Food and Drug Administration
GEF: Global Environmental Facility
GIS: geographic information system
Global distillation (or “grasshopper”) effect: The large-scale geochemical process by which persistent organic pollutants and other chemicals evaporate or are volatilized in the warmer, southerly or mid-latitudes and are transported to colder, northerly latitudes by the prevailing atmospheric currents where they condense, settle to earth, and often enter the food web.
Habitat: A functional area used by organism(s) as a life supporting system. Habitat can vary greatly in size and composition. A habitat consists of biotic and abiotic features. At times, it can be closely linked to ecosystems.
HIHWNMS: Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary
IA: Increasing Awareness
IBWC: International Boundary and Water Commission (Comisión Internacional de Límites de Aguas)
Indicator species: A species that defines specific characteristics of its environment. Fluctuations in its population may provide an early indication of environmental change.
Indigenous: Native to an area, but can be found elsewhere as well.
INE: Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Semarnat (National Institute of Ecology) (Mexico)
Infauna: Benthic species living in the [soft] sea bottom.
INP/Inapesca: National Fisheries Institute, Sagarpa (Instituto Nacional de la Pesca—Sagarpa)
IUCN: International Union for the Conservation of Nature, presently called World Conservation Union
IWC: International Whaling Commission
Keystone species: Species which are critically important for maintaining ecological processes or the diversity of their ecosystems (e.g., sea otter).
LEED: Local Economic and Employment Development program
Level I Marine Ecoregion: This level captures ecosystem differences at the largest scale, defining large water masses and currents, large enclosed seas, and regions of coherent sea surface temperature or ice cover. This level is determined by processes that pertain to a whole ocean basin. The cross-shelf domain of Level I extends from the coasts to the deep oceans, although biogeographic patterns and processes in the deeper regions are still poorly understood. As a practical matter, the seaward boundary extends only to
the jurisdictional limits of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), 200 nautical miles (370 km) offshore. The biogeographic regions themselves, however, may extend to beyond the EEZ.
Level II Marine Ecoregion: Level II captures the break between neritic (near shore) and oceanic areas and is determined by large-scale physiography (continental shelf, slope, and abyssal plain, as well as areas of oceanic islands and major trenches, ridges and straits). This level reflects the importance of depth as a major determinant of benthic marine communities as well as the importance of major physiographic features in determining current flows and upwelling. Like Level I, it extends from the coasts to the EEZ
Level III Marine Ecoregion: Level III captures differences within the neritic realm and is based on more locally significant variables (local characteristics of the water mass, regional landforms, as well as biological community type). Level III is limited to the continental shelf, since only this area has sufficient information for finer-scale delineation.
LGEEPA: Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente/ General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection
Marine Ecoregions: The Marine Ecoregions of North America are 24 large masses of water differentiated by oceanographic feactures and geographically distinct assemblages of species that interact ecologically in ways that are critical for their long-term persistence. They are the result of a system of classification and map attempting to create consistent, standardized and understandable units out of the vastness of the continent’s ocean and coastal waters. This system is scalable, ecosystem-oriented, and linked to existing maps and classifications.
Marine Protected Area: Any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying waters and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by legislation or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment.
MCBI: Marine Conservation Biology Institute
MCSST: multi-channel sea surface temperature
MMC: United States Marine Mammal Commission
MMPA: US Marine Mammal Protection Act
MODIS: moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer
MPA: marine protected area
MSC: Marine Stewardship Council
MSCCC: Marine Species of Common Conservation Concern
NACAP: North American Conservation Action Plan
NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement
Neritic: The ocean environment, landward of the shelf-slope break. Also known as coastal or continental shelf waters. The neritic environment is generally less than 200 m deep (compare with Oceanic).
NMML: National Marine Mammal Lab
NAMPAN: North American MPA Network
NAS: National Academy of Sciences
NASA: US National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NAWEG: North American Wildlife Enforcement Group
NEEA: National Environmental Education Act
NGO: Nongovernmental organization
NMFS: National Marine Fisheries Service, presently called NOAA Fisheries of the Department of Commerce (US)
NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
NOM: Mexican Official Standard (Norma Oficial Mexicana)
NOS: Noroeste Sustentable
NOS: United States National Ocean Service (NOAA)
NPP: net primary productivity
Nursery area/ground: An area in which the density of sub-adult organisms is greater than in other habitats, and in which the habitat confers advantages that result in greater survival of such organisms into the next larger size class.
Nutrient loading
OBIS: Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Oceanic: Associated with marine environments seaward of the shelf break (compare with Neritic).
Oligotrophic: A body of water with low supply of nutrients, and subsequent low productivity as well (compare with Eutrophic).
PACE: Species Conservation Action Programs, Conanp (Programas de Acción para la Conservación de Especies)
PAR: photosynthetically available radiation
PBR: Potential Biological Removals
PCA: Priority Conservation Area. A PCA is an area of trinational importance due to their ecological significance, threatened nature and opportunities for conservation—which is in need of bi and trinational cooperative action for its successful conservation.
PCB: polychlorinated biphenyls
Pelagic: Defining a habitat of or an organism that inhabits/frequents (as in seabirds) the open ocean/water column, away from the sea bottom (compare with Benthic).
PGR: Attorney General Office (Mexico)/Procuraduría General de la República
PNA: Protected Natural Area(s)
POEMGC: Marine Ecological Planning of the Gulf of California Program, Semarnat (Programa de Ordenamiento Ecológico Marino del Golfo de California)
Population: A group of interbreeding organisms occupying a particular space; the number of humans or other living creatures in a designated area.
PRBO: Conservation Science (formerly Point Reyes Bird Observatory) (US)
Procer: Conservation Program for Species at Risk (Programa de Conservación de Especies en Riesgo, Conanp)
Proders: Sustainable Regional Development Programs (Programas de Desarrollo Regional Sustentable, Conanp)
Profepa: Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente, Semarnat)
PSG: Pacific Seabird Group
PSU: Practical Salinity Unit. One of several possible measures of salinity in water. Ocean water, for example, is generally about 35 PSU, which is equivalent to 3.5% salt content, or 35,000 ppm salt.
QCI: Queen Charlotte Islands
RAMSAR: The mission of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which was signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world.
Rookery: The breeding ground of certain birds or animals, such as seals.
Sagarpa: Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food (Mexico) (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación)
Salud: Secretariat of Health (Mexico) (Secretaría de Salud)
SARA: Canada’s Species at Risk Act
SCCC: Species of Common Concern
SE: Status Evaluation (SE)
SE: Secretariat of Economy (Mexico) (Secretaría de Economía)
SeaWiFS: sea-viewing wide field-of-view sensor
Sectur: Secretariat of Tourism (Mexico) (Secretaría de Turismo)
Sedesol: Secretariat for Social Development (Mexico) /(Secretaría de Desarrollo Social)
Semar: Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaría de Marina-Armada de México)
SERNAPESCA: Chile’s Servicio Nacional de Pesca
Semarnat: Secretaría de Medio Ambiente, Recursos Naturales (Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources) (Mexico)
SMM: Society for Marine Mammalogy
Solamac: Latin American Society for Aquatic Mammals (Sociedad Latinoamericana de Mamíferos Acuáticos)
Somemma: Mexican Society for Marine Mammalogy (Sociedad Mexicana de Mastozoología Marina)
Species
SPLASH: Structure of Populations Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks
SST: sea surface temperature
Stock
Sub-species
Sustainable development
SWFSC: Southwest Fisheries Science Center
TC: Threat Clarification
TMDL: Total Maximum Daily Loads
TNC: The Nature Conservancy
TRT: Take Reduction Team
UABCS: Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur
UC: University of California
UN: United Nations
UNAM: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNEP: United Nations Environment Program
US: United States of America
USFWS: United States Fish and Wildlife Service (US Department of Interior)
USGS: United States Geological Survey
Wetland: An area that is saturated by surface or ground water with vegetation adapted for life under those soil conditions, as swamps, bogs, fens, marshes, and estuaries.
WWF: World Wildlife Fund

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