Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer, uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found on ocean shores, but can also be found as standing waves in the open ocean, in lakes, in rivers in the form of a tidal bore, or in wave pools.
A rip current is a specific type of water current that can occur near beaches where waves break. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water that moves directly away from the shore by cutting through the lines of breaking waves, like a river flowing out to sea. The force of the current in a rip is strongest and fastest next to the surface of the water.
Filter feeders are aquatic animals that acquire nutrients by feeding on organic matters, food particles or smaller organisms suspended in water, typically by having the water pass over or through a specialized filtering organ. Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms.
Emerita is a small genus of decapod crustaceans, known as mole crabs, sand fiddlers, or sand crabs. These small animals burrow in the sand in the swash zone and use their antennae for filter feeding.
A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. These pools typically range from a few inches to a few feet deep and a few feet across. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide, as seawater gets trapped when the tide recedes. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. A tidal cycle is usually about 25 hours and consists of one or two high tides and two low tides.
Coastal morphodynamics refers to the study of the interaction and adjustment of the seafloor topography and fluid hydrodynamic processes, seafloor morphologies and sequences of change dynamics involving the motion of sediment. Hydrodynamic processes include those of waves, tides and wind-induced currents.
Intertidal ecology is the study of intertidal ecosystems, where organisms live between the low and high tide lines. At low tide, the intertidal is exposed whereas at high tide, the intertidal is underwater. Intertidal ecologists therefore study the interactions between intertidal organisms and their environment, as well as between different species of intertidal organisms within a particular intertidal community. The most important environmental and species interactions may vary based on the type of intertidal community being studied, the broadest of classifications being based on substrates—rocky shore and soft bottom communities.
Donax is a genus of small, edible saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs with highly variable color patterns. The genus is sometimes known as bean clams or wedge shells; however, Donax species have different common names in different parts of the world. In the southeastern U.S. they are known as "coquina", a word that is also used for the hard limestone concretions of their shells and those of other marine organisms. They are called "Chip Chip" in Trinidad & Tobago and "Chipi Chipi" in Venezuela, "Stumpfmuschel" in German, and "Zaaje" in Dutch. In South Vanuatu Languages they are called "Kaiwi" or "Tumbar".
Hot Water Beach is a beach on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand, just south of Mercury Bay. It is approximately 12 kilometres south east of Whitianga, and approximately 175 kilometres from Auckland by car. Its name comes from underground hot springs that filter up through the sand between the high and low water tidal reaches. The beach is a popular destination both for locals and tourists visiting New Zealand. Annual visitor numbers have been estimated at 700,000, making it one of the most popular geothermal attractions in the Waikato region.
Sandy Beach, also referred to as "Sandy's" and known to Hawaiians as Wāwāmalu, is a beach on the southeastern shore of Oʻahu in Hawaii. It is known for its excellent bodyboarding and bodysurfing opportunities due to its peaky shore break and consistent barrels. Consequently, Sandy Beach has one of the highest incidences of water related spinal cord injuries in Hawaii, earning it the infamous nickname, "break-neck" beach. The water is especially dangerous during high surf, when powerful waves break over shallow sand and slabs of underwater lava rock. In certain conditions, strong rip currents are also present. The beach park is located between Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve to the west and Makapuʻu Point to the east along Kalanianaʻole Highway.
This is a glossary of terms used in fisheries, fisheries management and fisheries science.
In physical oceanography, undertow is the undercurrent that moves offshore while waves approach the shore. Undertow is a natural and universal feature for almost any large body of water; it is a return flow compensating for the onshore-directed average transport of water by the waves in the zone above the wave troughs. The undertow's flow velocities are generally strongest in the surf zone, where the water is shallow and the waves are high due to shoaling.
A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea. A habitat is an ecological or environmental area inhabited by one or more living species. The marine environment supports many kinds of these habitats.
Emerita analoga, the Pacific sand crab, Pacific mole crab or coldwater mole crab, is a species of small, sand-burrowing decapod crustacean found living in the sand along the temperate western coasts of North and South America. It is found on exposed sandy beaches in the swash region of the intertidal zone.
Cyrtopleura costata, or the angel wing clam, is a bivalve mollusc in the family Pholadidae. It is found in shallow parts of the northwest Atlantic and also in the North Sea of Scotland coastline and west coast of the Adriatic Sea by a remote area in the Marche region in central Italy, living in the seabed, where it digs its burrows on a very slow revolving movement for years through soft sand and mud always to a max depth of 8ft but always below 3 feet (0.91 m) at the lowest tide.
Mulinia lateralis, the dwarf surf clam or coot clam, is a species of small saltwater clam, a bivalve mollusc in the family Mactridae. It occurs in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Solecurtus strigilatus, also known as the rosy razor clam, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Solecurtidae. This mollusc is a suspension feeder and can burrow with great rapidity to escape predators. It is an unusual bivalve in that its shell valves are too small to contain all the soft tissue, and the animal is unable to retreat into its shell.
The Helderberg Marine Protected Area is a small marine conservation area on the north-eastern side of False Bay in the Western Cape province of South Africa, It lies between the mouths of the Lourens River in the Strand, and the Eerste River in Macassar.
The Rocherpan Marine Protected Area is a small coastal conservation region on the West Coast of the Western Cape province, in the territorial waters of South Africa. It is about 25 km north of Velddrif on the road to Elands Bay, north of Dwarskersbos.
