World Without Fish: Chapters 5-8

by Mark Kurlansky
In this book, Mark Kurlansky explores threats to the world's oceans and fish populations and describes ways that young people can support sustainable fishing.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction and Chapter 1, Chapters 2-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-11
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. compensate
    adjust for
    Nature also compensates for a shortage of food by making fish grow more slowly.
  2. intensify
    increase in extent or strength
    This debate intensified after 1944 when Iceland became independent.
  3. perception
    knowledge gained by awareness through the senses
    Mayo called this the "perception problem." With fish, he said, you "see some cod and assume this is the tip of the iceberg. But it could be the whole iceberg."
  4. regenerate
    reestablish on a new, usually improved, basis
    There are still cod there, but the population has not regenerated.
  5. mitigate
    lessen or to try to lessen the seriousness or extent of
    "...mitigate the destruction ever so little, and the number of species will almost instantaneously increase to any amount."
  6. diversity
    noticeable variety
    Just as species need diversity in order to survive and prosper, it may be that human civilization needs a wide variety of cultures, different ways of life, in order to survive and prosper.
  7. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
    In the ultimate irony, the restaurants that cater to tourists import cod for their menus because when people travel to Newfoundland, they want to eat cod.
  8. sustainable
    capable of being prolonged
    This is called sustainable fishing. This is the real answer to overfishing.
  9. secrete
    generate and separate from cells or bodily fluids
    Serafino explained how hag fish secrete slime all over their bodies when they become afraid...and how they tie themselves into knots to wring the slime off.
  10. domestication
    adaptation to close association with human beings
    We have already seen this in the farming and domestication of mammals.
  11. quota
    a prescribed number
    The second problem with regulating in this way, which is known as fishing quotas, is that most fish that are caught are dead by the time they reach the fisherman's deck.
  12. incentive
    a positive motivational influence
    These laws also give fishermen incentive to waste fish.
  13. sector
    a group that forms part of society or the economy
    A group of fishermen form a sector and agree that this group will fish only a specific quantity of each of the seventeen species of groundfish that are allowed in New England.
  14. efficient
    being effective without wasting time, effort, or expense
    So many of the problems of modern fishing were created by the development of equipment that was just too efficient.
  15. suppress
    put down by force or authority
    The problem is that technology, once it is invented, is very difficult to suppress.
Created on Thu Nov 16 09:36:53 EST 2017 (updated Fri Jun 20 16:10:18 EDT 2025)

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