Abiotic: Non-living.
Adaptation: How organisms adjust to change in their environment. Organisms adapt by changing form and behavior over time to better survive in a new environment.
Aerobic: Where oxygen is present.
Algae: Underwater plants. Algae are food for many aquatic animals.
Aggressive: The hostile behavior of an animal towards other animals.
Air: What we breathe from our air tanks, not oxygen.
Ampullae of Lorenzini: Tiny pores in the shark's snout containing sensors that allow the shark to detect weak electrical signals.
Artifact: Something that was made by humans.
Aquatic: In water.
Bay: A wide inlet of a river, lake, sea or ocean. A bay is usually smaller than a gulf.
Biodiversity: The number of different species found in a given area.
Blubber: The thick layer of insulating fat under the skin of most marine mammals that helps them stay warm.
Bony Fish: These fish have a skeleton made of bone. Most fish are bony fish.
Brackish: A mixture of fresh and salt water.
Carnivore: An animal that eats flesh.
Caudal Fin: The tail of a fish.
Cartilage: The tough, flexible material that a shark's skeleton is made of. Our ears and noses are flexible because they contain cartilage.
Claspers: The sex organs of male sharks. Claspers are used for the passing of sperm to a female shark. All sharks have internal fertilization. The claspers are found just next to and behind the pelvic fins only on male sharks.
Colony:A group of plants or animals that are connected or living close together.
Conservation: The care, protection, or management of natural resources.
Countershading: A form of protective coloration in which many fish are darker on the top of their bodies than the undersides. Many sharks are a dark color on their backs and a lighter color on their bellies.
Density: (Physics) The mass of a substance for a given volume.
(Biology) The number of individuals in a given area.
Dermal Denticles: The tiny, teeth-like scales covering the shark's skin. As the shark grows, the denticles are shed and replaced by slightly larger ones.
Dorsal: The back of an organism.
Dorsal Fin: A back fin of a fish.
Drag: The slowing effect of air or water resistance (friction with the air or water) on a moving object.
Ecology: The relationship between plants and animals and their environment.
Ecosystem: All the living organisms and the physical features within a specific area.
Ecotourism: Guiding tourists to natural places in the world to visit the animals, plants, people, and culture without endangering it.
Elasmobranch: "Elasmo" = "flexible". "Branch" = "skeleton". An animal with a flexible skeleton made of cartilage. These animals include sharks and rays.
Environment: Our surroundings, including all of the living and non-living parts.
Endangered: Any kind of plants or animals whose survival is in danger. Endangered wildlife could become extinct because of natural or man-made manatees from harm.
Evaporation: The conversion of a substance into vapor. (i.e. water into water vapor)
Exoskeleton: An external skeleton.
Fauna: Animals.
Fish: A cold-blooded animal that lives in water, breathes with gills and has a backbone.
Flora: Plants.
Food chain: An arrangment of the plants and animals in the order of what they eat or who eats them, where larger animals usually eat smaller animals or plants. Engery necessary for life moves from plants or animals that are eaten to the animal that eats it.
Food web: The interacting food chains within an ecological community.
Fusiform: A torpedo-shape. Most sharks have this shape to glide easily through the water.
Gills: Part of a fish that works like lungs in people. Gills take oxygen from the water so the fish can breathe.
Gill Slits: The slit-like openings on the side of a fish's head. Most sharks have five pairs of gill slits, but some have six or seven pairs. As a shark breathes, oxygen-rich water enters its mouth. The water passes over the gills and respiration takes place: oxygen in the water is exchanged for carbon dioxide in the blood. The now oxygen-depleted water exits through the gill slits.
Habitat: The place where an organism lives in an ecological community.
Invertebrate: An animal that has no backbone.
Island: Land that is totally surrounded by water.
Lateral Line: A tiny pressure-sensitive tube under a fish's skin, running along the fish's body from behind the gills to the base of the tail fin. Fish use their lateral lines to detect the movement of other fish or objects near them.
Mammal: A warm-blooded animal that breathes with lungs, has a back bone, hair, gives birth to live young, and feeds its babies milk.
Marine: In seawater.
Migration: A long trip some animals make from one place to another to feed or have babies.
Microscopic: Very small. Can only be seen with a microscope.
Natural Resources: Natural resources are what people can use which comes from the natural environment. Natural resources include air, water, wood, oil, wind energy, natural gas, iron, and coal.
Negative Buoyancy: Sinking.
Neutral Buoyancy: Being weightless underwater, not sinking to the bottom (negative buoyancy) or rising to the surface (positive buoyancy), but effortlessly maintaining the desired depth.
Nictitating Membrane: An inner eyelid that many sharks have.
Ocean: All the salt water that covers over 70% of the Earth.
Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and animals.
Pectoral Fins: The fins on either side of a fish just behind or below the gill slits
Photosynthesis: The process that plants use to change C02 and water into sugars using the energy from sunlight. These sugars are the food for the plants.
Phytoplankton: Plankton that are plants.
Plankton: Microscopic plants and animals that drift with the currents near the surface of the ocean.
Positive Buoyancy: Floating.
Potable: People are able to drink it.
Precipitation: Rain.
Predator: An animal that lives by hunting and eating other animals.
Prey: Animals eaten by predators.
Refuge: A place safe from danger.
SCUBA: These letters stand for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Scuba refers to the air tank and regulator assembly. Scuba was invented by Jacques Cousteau.
Sea: A subdivision of the ocean, usually partly surrounded by land.
Scales: Tiny, thin, flat plates the cover the skin of a fish.
School: A group of fish.
Shark: A type of fish that has no bones. Sharks have a backbone (vertebrae) that is not really bone, but cartilage.
Species: A group of animals that are similar in how they are made, how they look, and how they act.
Spiracle: On some sharks this is an opening on the back of the head above and behind each eye. Spiracles are usually found on bottom-dwelling sharks.
Survival: A continuation of life. Living beyond the death of another.
Symbiosis: How different organisms live together.
Territory: A paticular area that a creature establishes as its own.
Vibration: A quick movement or shaking of the ground, water, air, or other objects.
Visibility: The horizontal distance that we can see underwater. Visibility varies from zero to over 200 feet, depending on location, weather conditions, time of day, tides, and other climatic variables.
Whale: Marine mammals that have large brains and catch their food with either teeth or baleen.
Zooplankton: Plankton that are animals.
