MAC has produced a series of definitions to ensure clarity and consistency with its Certification system. The hereunder definitions are meant to provide an overarching description of the term being defined. Where possible, we have tried to use terminology and definitions that have wide international acceptance and use.
Where possible, the definitions below were taken from the following sources:
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
- UN Global Environment Program Global Biodiversity Assessment - (GBA)
- UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
(1) The term 'acclimatization' means to slowly adapt an organism from the water quality parameters it was shipped in to ones more approaching that of a natural state with special emphasis placed on ensuring proper pH, temperature and salinity levels to achieve optimal health and normal healthy behavior of the organism.
(2) The term 'biological diversity' means the variety and variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Diversity indices are measures of richness (the number of species in a system); and to some extent, evenness (variances of species' local abundance). They are therefore indifferent to species substitutions which may, however, reflect ecosystem stresses (such as those due to high fishing intensity). (FAO)
(3) The term 'buyer' means all purchasers of marine organisms at any stage of the chain of custody, e.g. middlemen/women, exporter, importer, transshipper, retailer, consumer.
(4) The term 'certification traceability' means the documentation and other evidence by which a certified organism can be traced back from each certified buyer to each certified supplier through the chain of custody all the way to the certified collection area from which it was collected.
(5) The term 'certifier or certification organization' means a third-party independent organization that assesses, on a commercial basis, other organizations or individuals for their compliance to the Marine Aquarium Council standards. Competence to do so is accredited by the Marine Aquarium Council.
(6) The term 'chain of custody' means the sequence of commercial operations or people responsible for the collection and trade in marine aquarium organisms. This begins with the collectors and extends to the retailer-sale and to the end buyer. For the retailer to be able to offer certified marine organisms, all components of the chain of custody handling the organisms must be certified.
(7) The term 'collection area' means the geographical area of reef, other natural marine ecosystems or geographical areas defined by natural, political, social and or ownership boundaries, from which the marine organisms are collected or fished. For certification purposes, the collection area defines the physical space covered by a management plan.
(8) The term 'Collection Area Management Plan' means a document or collection of documents, usually prepared with the appropriate authority (e.g. government, community, and/or owner), the purpose of which is to ensure the collection area is managed according to the principles of this Standard.
(9) The phrase 'collection and fishing' means the removal of live marine fish and corals and other marine invertebrates and plants from their natural environment for commercial purposes for use in aquariums as live organisms.
(10) The term 'collector' means an individual engaged in the activity of harvesting coral reef organisms.
(11) The term 'co-mingled' means certified and uncertified organisms are mixed so that the origin of the organism cannot be traced to a certified supplier and collection area.
(12) The term 'conservation' means the:
(a) Judicious use and management of nature and natural resources for the benefit of human society and for ethical reasons. (GBA)
(b) Artificial control of ecological relationships in an environment in order to maintain a particular balance among the species present.
(c) the management of human use of the biosphere so that many yield the greatest sustainable benefit to current generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations: Thus conservation in positive, embracing preservations, maintenance, sustainable utilization, restoration, and enhancement of the natural environment. (CBD)
(13) The term 'conservation of biodiversity' means the management of human interactions with genes, species, and ecosystems so as to provide the maximum benefit to the present generation while maintaining their potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations; encompasses elements of saving, studying and using. (CBD)
(14) The term 'coral' means any living or dead specimens, parts or derivatives, or any organisms containing specimens, parts or derivatives of any organisms of the following taxonomic groups belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. This includes:
(a) all species of black corals (Antipatharia), stony corals (Scleractinia), soft corals (Alcyonacea), thorny corals (Gorgonacea/Scleraxonia and Holaxonia) , organ pipe corals (Stolonifera), and blue coral (Coenothecalia/Helioporacea) of the class Anthozoa; and
(b) all species of the fire corals (Milleporina) and lace corals (Stylasterina) of the class Hydrozoa.
(15) The term 'coral reef' means any reef, shoal, or other natural feature composed in part of the solid skeletal structures in which corals are major framework constituents.
(16) The term 'coral reef ecosystem' means the interacting complex of organisms and nonliving variables associated with coral reefs and their habitats, including grassbeds, sandflats, mangroves and algal plains, which function as an ecological unit in nature.
(17) The term 'coral reef organisms' includes:
(a) any plant or animal, including algae, sea grasses, invertebrates and vertebrates that live in, on, or in association with coral reefs and are directly dependent on the coral reef ecosystem for feeding, reproduction or growth, but does not include mammals, reptiles, or birds; and
(b) live rock.
(18) The term 'curio coral' means coral harvested and sold without intent to supply the organism as live. Curio coral is sold with the knowledge that it will be purchased by the consumer as dead coral.
(19) The term 'declared shipping time' means the period of time from when an organism is placed within a transportation plastic bag to when it is unpacked and started on an acclimatization process at the receiving end of the shipping route e.g. by an exporter, importer, transhipper, retailer, etc.
(20) The term 'destructive collection and fishing practices' means the collection or fishing of live marine organisms through methods that are environmentally destructive or harmful including but not limited to practices such as coral breaking, the use of poison/toxins or other deleterious materials and explosives, and reef dredging.
(21) The term 'DOA' means 'Dead On Arrival', i.e. at the beginning of the acclimatization period.
(22) The term 'DAA' means 'Dead After Arrival', i.e. after or during the acclimatization period.
(23) The term 'declared shipping time' means the maximum period of time an organism can maintain optimal health in a closed container for shipping. The supplier, e.g. exporter, must determine this time, pack the shipment accordingly and inform the receiver of this time.
(24) The term 'ecosystem' means a dynamic complex of plant, animal, fungal, and micro-organism communities and their associated non-living environment interacting as a functional unit; the organisms living in a given environment, such as a tropical forest, a coral reef or a lake, and the physical part of the environment that impinges on them. (Adapted from CBD and GBA)
(25) The term 'ecosystem integrity' means the ability to support and maintain a balanced, integrated, adaptive biological community having a species composition, diversity and functional organization comparable to that of natural habitat in the region. (FAO)
(26) The term 'ecosystem management' means management taking due account of all living organisms and their environment in the management area. In practice, this means management ensuring sustainability of target, dependant, and associated species. (Adapted from FAO)
(27) The term 'environmental management' means management and control of the environment and natural resources systems in such a way so as to ensure the sustainability of development efforts over a long-term basis. (FAO)
(28) The term 'exporter' means all buyers of organisms from the collector or other supplier (e.g. “middlemen”), whether an individual, company or other business entity, who export all or some of those organisms to another country or state (e.g. from Hawaii).
(29) The term 'fisher' means a gender-neutral name for a person (male or female) participating in the catching, taking, or harvesting of fish or other aquatic organism.
(30) The term 'fishery' means;
(a) the sum (or range) of all fishing activities on a given resource. It may also refer to the activities of a single type or style of fishing. The fishery can be artisanal, and/or industrial, commercial, subsistence, and recreational, and can be annual or seasonal; and
(b) the activity of catching marine organisms, from one or more stocks, that can be treated as a unit for purposes of conservation and management and that is identified on the basis of geographic, scientific, technical, recreational, social or economic characteristics, and/or method of catch.
(31) The term 'fishery management' means the integrated process of information gathering, analysis, planning, decision-making, allocation of resources and formulation and enforcement of fishery regulations by which the fishery management authority controls the present and future behavior of interested parties in the fisheries, in order to ensure the continued productivity and well being of the living resources. (FAO)
(32) The term 'habitat' means the place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs. (CBD)
(33) The term 'hookah' means an air supply system that consists of portable compressor that pumps air to the diver(s) through hoses to a demand regulator. An alternative system may consist of an onboard tank of compressed air that is delivered to the diver through hoses. The air gets to the diver by means of a rubber hose. The diver's teeth regulate the intake.
(34) The term 'live rock' means any hard substrate that is attached to and supports any organisms identified in subparagraph (A) of the definition of “coral reef organisms.”
(35) The term 'MAC Standards Committee' means the committee and sub-committees of MAC established and designated by the MAC Board of Directors to have authority for the international standards-setting activities of MAC.
(36) The term 'make weights' means an addition of organisms to shipment that had not been included in the original order instructions.
(37) The term 'managed towards sustainability' means managed in ways so as to obtain sustainability of the resource being used and the biodiversity of the ecosystem(s) being impacted by the use of that resource.
(38) The term 'monitoring' means the intermittent (regular or irregular) surveillance to ascertain the extent of compliance with a predetermined standard or degree of deviation from an expected norm (CBD/GBA) The collection of information for the purpose of assessment of the progress and success of an area-use plan. Monitoring is used for the purpose of assessing performance of a management plan or compliance scheme and revising them or to gather experience for future plans. (Adapted from FAO)
(39) The term 'optimal health' means the condition of well being for marine aquarium organisms is expected from implementing best practices in husbandry, handling, packing and transport and does not result in reduced survivability of the organism or mortality of greater than 1% during shipment.
(40) The term 'order instructions' means the number and type of certified organisms requested by the buyer, the order date and the requested delivery date.
(41) The term 'planned and organized manner' means collecting and fishing activities are consistent with and operationalize the Collection Area Management Plan.
(42) The term 'precautionary approach' means a set of agreed cost-effective measures and actions, including future courses of action, which ensures prudent foresight, reduces or avoids risk to the resource, the environment, and the people, to the extent possible, taking into account existing uncertainties and the potential consequences of being wrong. (FAO)
(43) The term 'reef mining' means the large-scale removal of living reef corals and fossilized limestone from shallow reef environments for domestic use as building materials, lime production and aggregate.
(44) The term 'retailer' means all those companies, individuals, hobbyist groups, who buy from importers and trans-shippers or directly import marine fish for the supply, use or benefit of the final consumer.
(45) The term 'show piece coral' means (need to define) a superb specimen in terms of size, branching, or coloration
(46) The term 'significant organisms' means a species whose status provides information on the overall condition of the ecosystem and of other species in that ecosystem. They reflect the quality and changes in environmental conditions as well as aspects of community composition. (CBD and GBA)
(47) The term 'species' means a group of organisms capable of interbreeding freely with each other but not with members of other species. (CBD) Group of animals or plants having common characteristics, able to breed together to produce fertile (capable of reproducing) offspring, and maintaining their 'separateness' from other groups. (FAO)
(48) The term 'stakeholders' means an individual or group of individuals, whether at an institutional or personal level, that have an interest or claim which have the potential of being impacted by or having an impact on a given activity. This interest or claim can be stated or implied and direct or indirect. Stakeholders and stakeholder groups can be at the household, community, local, regional, national, or international levels. (Adapted from FAO)
(49) The term 'supplier' means all providers of marine organisms at any stage of the chain of custody, e.g. collector, fisher, middlemen/women, exporter, importer, and transhipper.
(50) The term 'sustainable use' means the use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations. (CBD)
(51) The term 'take' or 'harvest' means to capture, catch, collect or harvest coral reef organisms by any means.
(52) The term 'third party' means a person or body that is recognized as being independent of the parties involved, as concerns the issue in question.
(53) The term 'third party independent certification' means a procedure by which a third party gives written assurance that a product, process or service conforms to specified requirements.
(54) The term 'those responsible for undertaking the fishery' means the individuals, groups or commercial entities with the necessary authorization or permission from the appropriate authority (e.g. government, community, and/or owner) to conduct the marine aquarium fishery in the collection area.
(55) The term 'unsuitable species' means species that are unlikely to survive shipment or captivity for a considerable proportion of their potential lifespan.”
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