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Alevin: Newly hatched salmonids, still with yolk sacs visible.
Ammocoetes: Lamprey young prior to transformation into adult appearance.
Amphibians: A class of vertebrates including frogs, toads, newts and salamanders that usually begin life with gills and later develop lungs.
Anadromous: Fish which are born in fresh water, spend a portion of their lives in the ocean and then return to spawn.
Anticoagulant: A chemical which retards or overcomes the thickening of the blood and slowing of the flow which is the natural bodily response to a wound or opening in the skin.
Aquatic: Water based, living in water as opposed to land
Automize: Conscious disconnection of appendages, claws, legs, etc., under threatening circumstances.
Autotomy: The ability of some animal species to lose and then regrow body parts.
Ball: School of baitfish which close into a relatively tight spherical pattern when under attack by predators.
Bar: Point at which the outflow of water from a river or estuary meets the ocean, often causing strong, conflicting waves.
Bloom: A greenish coloration found in the water when millions of phytoplankton organisms enter a rapid growth spurt resulting from the addition of sunlight from above and nutrients from below. Off the Oregon coast this is a late spring and summer event.
Buck Shad: Male spawning shad.
Detritus: Decaying plants and animals.
Ebb: The outflow of tide, a receding tide.
Euthanized: To be given an easy or painless death.
Evisceration: Removal of intestines. Only a few organisms are capable of self-evisceration as a defensive response.
Extirpated: Removed completely, exterminated.
Forbs: Succulent green plants without woody stems.
Fry: Fish who have just outgrown the yolk sacs. Chum, pinks and some chinook migrate to the ocean as fry.
Hemotoxic: Poison which attacks the blood and related organs.
Herptiles: A commonly used animal grouping which includes both reptiles and amphibians.
Herpetology: The study of reptiles and amphibians.
High Slack: The period of time immediately following high tide when the tide seems almost stationary, neither coming in or nor going out.
Larva: The early form of animal which changes structurally when it becomes an adult.
Metamorphosis: A change or transformation of animals from the immature stage to the adult. In amphibians this transformation normally includes the concurrent development of air breathing apparatuses.
Milt: Fish sperm.
Minus Tide: A low tide which is significantly lower than the established average tide. A minus tide is expressed in negative numbers of feet, i.e. -1.4.
Natal: Native, location of birth.
Neotenic: An individual salamander which has never undergone the transformation to adulthood by developing gills but has become sexually mature and is able to breed.
Neutrotoxic: Poison which attacks the central nervous system.
Parr: Stage in which vertical bars become obvious; fish becomes an active predator.
Pelagic: Open water. Normally refers to organisms found in the open ocean as opposed to coastal waters.
Phytoplankton: Microscopic plants found drifting in the ocean.
Pods: School of whales.
Redds: Gravelly nest dug by salmon for egg deposit.
Riparian: Type of habitat which borders on, and includes streams, lakes and rivers.
Roe Shad: Female spawning shad.
Secretion: A chemical which oozes through the outside of the skin. In amphibians this secretion acts as a protective poison and deterrent to predators.
Slick: Oily covering on the water resulting from blood, scales and debris following predator attack on school of fish.
Smolt: stage of downstream migration for coho and most chinook. Fish is four to six inches long and one or two years old.
Turbidity: Cloudy, murky condition of water brought on by presences of sediment.
Upwelling: Upward movement of cold, nutrient-rich water from the ocean bottom to replace surface water which was moved off shore by wind and rotation of the earth.
Zooplankton: Microscopic animals and animal larvae found drifting or swimming in the ocean. |
