Glossary |
C |
| carapace | |
| The shield covering the upper surface of part of the body of various crustacean species (for example, the broad shield forming the upper body cover of crabs and of the front portion of prawns and rock lobsters). | |
| catadromous species | |
| Catadromous species spend most of their life cycle in freshwater, but enter the ocean to spawn. American eels are one of the most important commercial species. For the purposes of the LOS Convention, in relation to such species, the general regime of the EEZ applies, subject to an additional obligation on coastal States through whose EEZs catadromous species migrate to cooperate over management (including harvesting) of these species with the State in whose waters the species spend the greater part of their life-cycle: the latter State has overall management responsibility for these species (Art. 67). | |
| catch per unit of effort (CPUE) | |
| The catch of fish, in numbers or in weight, taken by a defined unit of fishing effort. Also called: catch per effort. | |
| cetaceans | |
| Group of marine mammals, of the Order CetaceaCetacea. Includes Odontoceti (toothed whales, including dolphins and porpoises) and Mysticeti (baleen or whalebone whales). | |
| codend | |
| Catadromous species spend most of their life cycle in freshwater, but enter the ocean to spawn. American eels are one of the most important commercial species. For catadromous species the LOS Convention creates special rights for the coastal State in whose waters species spend the greater (i.e. the freshwater) part of their life cycle. | |
| cohort -
see: |
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| cohort
analysis - see: |
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| conditional fishing mortality rate | |
| The fraction of an initial stock which would be caught during the year (or season) if no other causes of mortality operated. | |
| conditional natural mortality rate | |
| The fraction of an initial stock that would die from causes other than fishing during a year (or season), if there were no fishing mortality. | |
| conservation
(or limit) reference points - see: |
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| contiguous zone | |
| The term contiguous zone is used to define an area contiguous to the territorial sea in which coastal States have limited powers, especially of an administrative nature, for the purpose of enforcing customs, fiscal, sanitary and immigration laws or regulations within its territory (including its territorial sea). Although the concept is of comparatively recent origin (when compared to the territorial sea) it is now firmly established in international law. Under the LOS Convention (Art. 33), the maximum limit of the contiguous zone is 24 nautical miles from coastal State baselines. | |
| continental shelf | |
| The continental shelf was a
concept in geology long before it acquired any legal identity. As a geomorphical feature,
it generally consists of a relatively shallow plateau of land adjacent to the coast (the
'shelf proper') followed by a steep slope going near to the ocean floor (the 'continental slope') and then a gradual incline going to the
ocean floor itself (the 'continental rise'). Such shelves may extend several hundred miles
(as is the case of the Patagonian shelf off the Atlantic coast of Argentina), or may be
very narrow (as off the south coast of France, where the sea-bed plunges immediately to
great depths). The legal definition of 'continental shelf' does not necessarily correspond with the geomorphical one. Article 76 provides the following definition:
Thus, for the purposes of the LOS Convention, all States, regardless of the physical shape of the shelf, have a continental shelf in law at least up to 200 n miles from the baselines of the territorial sea. (This is so even if there is no physical shelf or if it stops short of 200 n miles). If the physical extent of the shelf goes beyond 200 miles, the coastal state has a shelf in law 'throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin' although this is limited to a maximum extent of 350 n miles from the baselines of the territorial sea or 100 n miles from the 2,500 metre isobath (Art. 76(5)). As in the EEZ, the continental shelf gives the coastal state sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of a sea are adjacent to its coast. As far as living marine resources are concerned, the rights granted by the continental shelf regime relate only to sedentary species. |
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| continental slope | |
| Region of the outer edge of a continent between the generally shallow continental shelf and the deep-ocean floor, usually demarcated by the 200 metre isobath. | |
| crustacean | |
| A group marine and fresh-water animals, such as shrimps, crabs and lobsters, having no backbone, but a hard shell made of chitin and jointed legs. | |