Glossary of Fishery Terms - W

W

• Wetlands - areas of land where the soil is saturated with moisture, such as swamps and mangrove forests.

• Wild fish - are fish which live free, not penned in, in lakes, rivers or the sea. They can be contrasted with farmed fish.

• Wild fisheries - also called "capture fisheries", are fisheries which target wild fish. They can be contrasted with farmed fisheries.

• Wind currents - currents created by the action of the wind. Surface ocean currents are generally wind driven and develop typical clockwise spirals in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere. In wind driven currents, the Ekman spiral effect results in the currents flowing at an angle to the driving winds. Surface currents make up about ten percent of the water in the ocean, and are generally restricted to the upper 400 meters.