Four Fish 11 Tuna Flashcards
ennoble
to lend greater dignity or nobility of character to “the theater is a moral instrument to ennoble the mind.” “It was only when the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, confirmed Brisson’s definition of whales as nonfish that a certain ennoblement of those animals started to occur.” (207) MD - French ennoblir, from en- (expressing a change of state) + noble ‘noble’. N for niagara falls, it being named one of the 7 natural wonders of the world ennobled it. Even though Iguazu is larger.
rankle
(of a comment, event, or fact) cause annoyance or resentment that persists. “When Linnaeus went a step further and classified whales as mammals, that rankeld Brisson, who suspected Linaeus of overstepping the realms of scientific acceptability and trying to disguise his plagiarism of Brisson’s findings in an outlandish hypothesis.” (207) MD - Rubbing someones ANKLE with sand paper will cause annoyance and resentment that persists especially if the sand paper causes a wound that takes time to heal.
Cetacea
an order of marine mammals that comprises the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. These have a streamlined hairless body, no hind limbs, a horizontal tail fin, and a blowhole on top of the head for breathing. “Mammalian or not, the fact that ‘cetaceans,’ as the group would later be named, were not fish was well established within the scientific community by the end of the eighteenth century.” MD - SE ta shee a working at a restaurant, where they have to set tables at a brewery, they are good at moving through crowds because they have streamlined hairless, bodies, but they are bad at setting the table because they have no hind limbs. the horizontal tail fin allows them to hop around and the blow hole at the top of the head can be filled with beer.
mysticeti
a division of the whales that comprises the baleen whales. [Suborder Mysticeti, order Cetacea.] MD - think of mysticeti as mystics because they eat without chewing. and ceti which means of a whale - like cetacean.
odontoceti
a division of the whales that comprises the toothed whales. [Suborder Odontoceti, order Cetacea.] MD - modern Latin (plural), from Greek odous, odont- ‘tooth’ + ceti ‘of a whale’
echolocation
the location of objects by reflected sound, in particular that used by animals such as dolphins and bats. “Dr. Roger S. Payne is a Harvard-trained biologist who did his preliminary work on echolocation in bats and owls.” (212) MD maybe a visual. an echo is the repetition of sound caused by the reflection of the sound wave. so animals can determine location by
noncommittal
(of a person or a person’s behavior or manner) not expressing or revealing commitment to a definite opinion or course of action. “Spurning the classic noncommital stance that scientists are supposed to take in relation to politics, Spong banded together with early anti-nuclear-testing activists and helped form Greenpeace.” (213) wolverine impersonator was noncommittal about comic con. wanted to wait and see if his in laws were fans of the event before he expressed or revealed a definite opinion (like or dislike it) or course of action (go or not go).
breach (of a whale)
rise and break through the surface of the water. breach in security - a gap in a wall. think of the ocean surface as a wall and a whale breaking through
triangulation
chiefly US (in politics) the action or process of positioning oneself in such a way as to appeal to or appease both left-wing and right-wing standpoints. “When it came to tuna, though, I offered no triangulation whatsoever, because in my view there simply was no compromise possible. ‘Don’t eat the big fish,’ I declared toward the end of the editorial. Dining on a 500-pound bluefin tuna is the seafood equivalent of driving a HUmmer.” (215) MD - triangulaton see picture - picture both sides and you are the peak in the middle
abstemious
not self-indulgent, especially when eating and drinking: “We only had a bottle.” “Very abstemious of you.” “With globally caught and consumed fish like bluefin tuna, though, one consumer’s abstemiousness is nearly always shadowed by another consumer’s appetite.” (223) abstemious think of abstain. abstemious would be only eating 1 steamed dumpling and drinking just 1/2 glass of beer.
biomagnification
the concentration of toxins in an organism as a result of its ingesting other plants or animals in which the toxins are more widely disbursed. Organisms only keep approximately 10% of energy from the trophic level below; the remaining is lost as heat. As you move up trophic levels, the animals will have to consume far more biomass from the trophic level below to survive. This is how the toxicity becomes more concentrated with higher trophic levels. (wade notes from amoeba sisters) MD -
edify
instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually. MD edificio - building. educate, think of instucting or building - improving building goes up as a symbol for improvement morally or intellectually. each brick has a morality or intellectual nature to it - the golden rule,
prescient
having or showing knowledge of events before they take place “Indeed, Pauly’s (author of shifting-baselines theory) words turned out be prescient even with the ‘saved’ swordfish. Harpoon caught North Atlantic swordfish is now listed as a ‘Best Choice’ or ‘Good Alternative’ on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch cards.” (226) MD - Latin prae “before” (see pre-) + scire “to know” (see science). to know before. Md pre cent, scire - fire - would help to know if a fire man’s knowledge of fire’s was prescient. don’t fry that turkey. being prescient about a present ruins the suprise.
broodstock
Broodstock, or broodfish, are a group of mature individuals used in aquaculture for breeding purposes. Broodstock can be a population of animals maintained in captivity as a source of replacement for, or enhancement of, seed and fry numbers. “Morevover, maintaining a family of five-hundred-pound tuna broodstock is extremely costly. So costly that some researchers are even exploring a bizarre hybridizing project whereby mature bluefin gonads are implanted in the body of a dramatically smaller fish called a bonito in order to turn these small fish into surrogate mothers.” (228)
MD - brood - a family of young animals produced at one hatching or birth
- stock -
fry
young fish, especially when newly hatched. MD - small french fry
