Glossary: Section 7 Species Presence in the Greater Atlantic Region

Behaviors

• Foraging – active searching for food
• Spawning – releasing or depositing eggs/sperm
• Rearing – the act of caring for offspring until they are fully grown (e.g., marine mammals) or growing and developing in a relatively protective environment (e.g., fish)
• Overwintering – sheltering during the winter season
• Migration – seasonal movement of animals from one location to another
• Aggregation –grouping of animals

Life Stages

• Eggs – an oval or round object laid by a female fish containing a developing embryo
• Hatchlings¹ (Alevin) – recently hatched fish that live off of a yolk sac attached to their body
• Larvae – a young fish which at birth or hatching is fundamentally unlike its parent and must pass through metamorphosis before assuming adult characteristics; Atlantic Sturgeon: less than 4 weeks old, with total lengths less than 30 mm
• Fry¹ – a young salmon living in freshwater that is older than an alevin and younger than a parr or smolt
• Parr¹ – a young salmonid (salmon or trout) with parr-marks (e.g., stripes) before migration to the sea and after dispersal from the redd²
• Smolt¹ – a young salmonid which has developed silvery coloring on its sides, obscuring the parr marks, and which is about to migrate or has just migrated into the sea
• Young of year (YOY) – age-0 fish, or those animals born within the past year
• Juvenile
  • A) fish –until fish enters adult population or reaches sexual maturity;
    • For Atlantic sturgeon only: young fish that has not yet migrated out of its natal river (e.g., river it was born in)
  • B) sea turtles – not at full size or strength; gender cannot yet be determined
• Sub-adult 
  • A) loggerhead – an individual that is approaching sexual maturity
  • B) Atlantic sturgeon – an individual that has left its natal river and enters marine waters but is not yet sexually mature
• Adult – sexually mature and interacting with other adults

Acronyms

• DPS – Distinct Population Segment
• RKM – River Kilometer
• ELS – early life stage, can include larval and fry stages

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1 Apply to GOM DPS Atlantic Salmon only
2 Redd - depression, usually a pit or a trough in the stream gravel, dug in preparation for, or during, spawning

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