Northern abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) recovery strategy: chapter 5


5. Glossary of Terms

Abalone:
marine gastropod snail of the Family Haliotidae; for the purposes of this document, northern abalone or pinto abalone, Haliotis kamtschatkana.  This species is the most common and abundant abalone in B.C.   Note: A mature red abalone, H. rufescens was found in the central coast of B.C. (A. Campbell, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6N7, pers. comm.).  There are numerous unsubstantiated reports of the flat abalone, H. wallalensis in the literature with a northern distribution to B.C.
Anthropogenic:
involving the impact of humans on nature.
Aquaculture:
as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the culture of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Aquaculture implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to increase production, such as regular stocking, feeding, and protection from predators.
B.C.:
British Columbia, Canada.
Biogeographic zones in B.C.
based on environmental, management and/or biological considerations for northern abalone, includes intertidal and sub-tidal waters surrounding the following land areas:
Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands):
Queen Charlotte Islands.
Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straits:
Quadra Island (Seymour Narrows) north to Cape Caution. 
North and Central Coast:
Cape Caution north to and including Prince Rupert.
Georgia Basin:
San Juan Point to Seymour Narrows near Quadra Island.
West Coast of Vancouver Island:
the west coast of Vancouver Island from San Juan Point north to the Scott Islands.
Biomass:
the amount of living matter in the form of one or more kinds of organisms present in a particular habitat.
Broodstock:
mature adults that are able to produce young.
COSEWIC:
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada ( www.COSEWIC.gc.ca).
DFO:
Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Critical Habitat:
the habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of a listed wildlife species and that is identified as the species’ critical habitat in the recovery strategy or in an action plan for the species.
Culture:
Culture is used to define a variety of techniques or interventions used to assist in an animal’s survival and growth.  The term “culture” is generic and can be used in the context of either “aquaculture” or “enhancement”, and includes use of hatchery technologies and grow-out technologies.
Ecological:
of, or having to do with, the environments of living things or with the pattern of relations between living things and their environments; of or relating to the interdependence of organisms.
Ecosystem:
an ecological community considered together with the nonliving factors of its environment considered as a unit.
Endangered:
facing imminent extirpation or extinction.
Extirpated:
no longer existing in the wild in Canada, but occurring elsewhere.
Population rebuilding (or rehabilitation):
describes the activities undertaken to restore populations to desired levels of strength or number, and can involve culture, habitat modification, experimental manipulations and aggregating reproductive adults.
Preventative enforcement:
active patrols, education and investigations into illegal activity in order to prevent the loss of or illegal harvest of abalone and other species; all of which is done on a continuous and frequent basis throughout the year.
Proactive enforcement:
enforcement initiatives undertaken (as for Preventative above) with a long-term view (e.g., education, community development, stewardship and similar effort) aimed at protecting the resource; long-term efforts.
Reactive enforcement:
enforcement initiatives undertaken immediately as a result of reported active theft of the resource, happening real time and addressed real time.
Recovery:
is the process by which the declineof an endangered, threatened, or extirpated species is arrested or reversed and threats are removed or reduced to improve the likelihood of the species’ persistence in the wild. A species will be consideredrecoveredwhen its long-term persistence in the wild has been secured.
Recovery Implementation Group:
group of people working on specific recovery actions or projects under the umbrella of a recovery team.
Recruitment:
for this document, the number of juvenile abalone that enter into the adult population.
SARA:
the Species at Risk Act.
Self-sustainable population:
a population having a <5% probability of becoming extinct over the next 100 years.  According to COSEWIC this requires: enough breeding adults to be considered sustainable in the long-term; sufficient quality habitat to available or potentially available to maintain sustainable population numbers; adequate or improving demographic parameters (eg: sex ratio, birth and death rates); and mitigation/control of threats to the population, particularly those that initially caused the species decline.  
Threatened:
likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.
Viable:
capable of living.
coast of BC

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