A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z .
A
Assorted – Being of the same genus but may contain mixed species. When describing sizes the product does not have a standardize dimension, but is approximately within a few centimeters.
B
Bill of Lading (B/L, BoL, or BL) – A legal document between a shipper and a carrier detailing the type, quantity, and destination of goods being shipped.
Bivalvia – A class of marine and freshwater mollusks that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts.
C
Catch Certificate – Provides information, which proves that the fishery products have been caught under a legal fishing regime. This aims to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity, with the objective of guaranteeing the legal origin of fisheries products entering the destination country.
Cephalopoda – Any member of the molluscan class such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot. Sometimes referred to as “ink fish”
Certificate of Origin – Confirms the ‘nationality’ of a product and serves as a declaration to satisfy customs or trade requirements.
Country of Origin – The country where the final or completed manufacturing of a product comes from.
Customer Information Sheet (CIS) – A document that stores information about clients or customers. Ours include the contact information, addresses of individual and business. See Know Your Client.
Cuttlefish – Marine mollusks of the order Sepia. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of buoyancy.
D
Documents – These are documents provided when the client orders a product.
Drawn – A product with viscera removed. These products may cost more than a WR fish. This product may have its hear, scales, and gills intact; therefore, further processing may be required to clients liking.
E
Ensign – Flag or insignia that can refer to a ship’s nationality, military rank, or a badge of office.
F
Farm-raised – A product, that have been harvested in a controlled environment, including ocean-ranched (e.g., penned) fish and including shellfish harvested from leased beds that have been subject to production enhancements such as providing protection from predators, the addition to artificial structures, or providing nutrients; and fillets, steaks, nuggets, and any other flesh from a farm-raised product.
Fillet – Sides of a fish that have been cut away from the backbone and removed in one piece. Cut parallel to the spine and muscle fibers, they run “with the grain.” Round fish offer two fillets. Flatfish offer four, two from the top side, two from the bottom. Fillets cut from a large flatfish and then further divided into boneless portions – often half of each fillet, or one-eighth of the entire fish – are call fletches. Fillets vary in length and thickness, depending on the size and species of fish from which they are taken. Fillets also vary greatly in color, depending on the species.
Fish – A fish is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits.
Form – Final form of the product before being sent to the client (e.g., WR, H&G, Fillet, etc).
Full Corporate Offer (FCO) – A legally binding document that outlines the terms and conditions for a sale.
Frozen – Congealed by cold and may be covered with ice.
G
Gastropoda – Comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and from the land. There are many thousands of species of sea snails and slugs, as well as freshwater snails, freshwater limpets, land snails and slugs.
Genus – A taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of the product.
H
Half Shell – Any half of a roughly spherical-like object; any dome-shaped object. (Of food, especially with “on the”) Either half of a clamshell especially when used to serve individual portions of spiced, minced, breaded, baked mollusks.
Headless/Shell-On (HL/SO) – The product has its head-off but its shell is still intact.
Head-On (HD/ON) – See HO/SO
Head-On/Shell-On (HO/SO) – The product still has its head on, shell on, and has not been deveined.
Headed and Gutted (H&G) – A product with head and viscera removed. These products may cost more, but may have a longer shelf-life due to all parts that causes a fish to go bad have been removed. Product may still need to be processed further to clients liking.
Health Certificate – This document determines how the product was handled, landed, prepared, packaged, and transported while being in compliance to hygienic standards.
I
In the Round – See Whole
Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) – A method of freezing individual pieces of food separately from the other pieces at extremely low temperatures.
Invoice – A document that maintains a record of a transaction between a buyer and seller.
Irrevocable Corporate Purchase Order (ICPO) – A legally binding document that confirms a buyer’s intent to purchase a product or service from a seller.
Irrevocable Master Fee Protection Agreement (IMFPA) – A legal contract that outlines the terms and conditions for the payment of fees or commissions in international business deals.
Item Number – A unique number for each item. When ordering a product make sure the item number matches the item that is being requested.
J
K
Know Your Customer (KYC) – A process that verifies a customer’s the identity and risk level. It’s a mandatory process for financial institutions, such as banks, to comply with regulations and prevent fraud. See Client Information Sheet (CIS).
L
Letter of Intent (LOI) – A document that outlines the intentions of two or more parties before entering into a formal agreement.
Lobster – Malacostracans of the family Nephropidae. They have long bodies with tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, which are usually much larger than the others.
Loin – A cut, normally of uniform thickness, with no taper and no bones. Loins are take from large fish and cut from the backbone lengthwise into quarters.
M
Malacostraca – An animal with great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobster, crayfish, shrimp, frill, prawns, amphipods, mantis shrimp, and many other less familiar animals. They are abundant in all marine environments and have colonized freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They are segmented animals, united by a common body plan comprising twenty (20) body segments (rarely twenty-one 21), and divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen.
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) – The minimum required amount a buyer must purchase from a supplier.
Meat Only – Product does not contain any shell, skin, viscera, head, tail, etc. and is only meat of the animal.
Method of Protection (MOP) – There are multiple ways fishes are caught, but for simplicity, MOP will be either wild caught or farm-raised in this catalog.
N
Natural – Nothing artificial or synthetic.
Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement – A legal contract that protects a party from having their confidential information shared with others, while also ensuring that the recipient of that information cannot bypass the disclosing party to directly contact their business contacts or clients, essentially preventing them from “circumventing” the original introducer in a deal.
Net Caught (Caught/Net) – There are several forms of catching product by net: seines, trawls, gill-nets, etc.
O
Octopus – A soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusk of the order Octopoda. The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids.
Osteichthyes – Commonly referred to as the bony fish, and is a diverse superclass of vertebrate animals that have exoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue.
P
Packaging – Describes how the product is packaged for shipping.
Packing List – Provides the exporter, international freight forwarder, and ultimate consignee with information about the shipment, including how it’s packed, the dimensions and weight of each package, and the marks and numbers that are noted on the outside of the boxes.
Pealed & Deveined (P&D) – The shell of the shrimp is removed and the digestive tract along the back is removed and cleaned. P&D uncooked is available with the tail-on or the tail-off.
Pealed with Tail-on (PTO) – Head and vein may be removed, but may still be intact (per customers request), but the shell has been removed, and the tail remains.
Pealed Undeveined (PUD) – The product has its head-off and its shell-off, but the vein is still intact and has not been removed.
Piece(s) (pc or pcs) – Quantity of pieces per product. See Size for examples.
Production Amount – How much of a product can be shipped. This is usually used for twenty (20) feet and forty (40) feet container.
Q
R
Raw – Uncooked product.
Rod caught (Caught/Rod) – To catch fish with one or more fishing lines with baited hooks. They are used to catch a variety of fish ranging from open-ocean swimmers to bottom dwellers. The lines may or may not be attached to poles, and tells are often used to operate and retrieve the catch. Depending on the type and where fishing occurs, the gears are mechanically or hand-operated. Harmful impacts on other species tend to be minimal because fishermen can release unwanted marine life. Also, they may caught via hand-lines and jigs which are used to catch high-value species. This gear consists of a fishing line and grapnel with multiple hooks. When in use, jigs are manually or mechanically moved in the water to lure fish and then quickly pulled or jerked to hook them. Squid jigging is usually done at night with lights to entice them closer to the surface, but it can also be done during the day using underwater lights. These fishing methods are considered a more environmentally responsible because there’s very little catch of unwanted marine life.
S
Sales Purchase Agreement – A legally binding contract that outlines the terms of a sale between a buyer and a seller.
Scallops – A common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae.
Scientific Name – A genus name and a species name of the animal product.
Semi-contact Plate Freezer – A methods of freezing product by blowing air and contacting product with the aluminum plate to freeze food quickly.
Size – The product is sold per piece or grams. For instance: UP/30 means the product is up to 30 grams; 30/40 means the product is between 30-40 grams; 30/UP means the product is 30 grams and up (with a few grams overage). When pcs is added after the number it sup to 30 pieces and between 30-40 pieces respectively (for same example above); this is usually used for shellfish and other fish that is not WR. For non-animal products it represents the total pieces at the price point for instance 1 pc equals one (1) piece.
Shrimp – A crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – typically belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchiata of the order Decapoda, although some crustaceans outside of this order are also referred to as “shrimp”.
Skin-off (Skn/Off) – Skin removed prior to sale.
Skin-on (Skn/On) – The fish skin is left on the portions. Skin on fish fillets & fillet portions are muscular often used in pan seared fish recipes, so the skin crisps up, providing an attractive texture and presentation.
Snail – A shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks. However, the common name snail is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into.
Soft Corporate Offer (SCO) – A preliminary, non-binding document that outlines the terms of a potential business transaction between two companies.
Species – A group of individuals that actually or potentially interbreed in nature.
Squid – A mollusk with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other mollusks within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting these criteria.
Steak – Cross-sectional slices of fish, cut perpendicular to the backbone, normally one (1) or two (2) inches thick. With some fish steaks often contain a thin band of skin and a piece of backbone. There may also be some pin bones and pieces of belly flap. In smaller fish bone-in steaks are uniform in shape. In larger fish steaks come in several shapes and configurations: ovals, squared ovals, sandwich cuts, half-moons, quarter-bone squares and wedges.
Style – Product has either skin-on or has gone through the process of having its skin taken off – skinless, or for non-animal products, what material was used to make the end product.
Sustainable – Either wild caught or farm-raised seafood that is harvested or produced in ways that protect the long-term health of species populations and ecosystems.
T
Type – How the product is preserved and method of storage. For non-animal products, these products will be categorized with similar characteristics.
U
V
W
Whole (WR) – A product with head, viscera, fins, tails, etc. still intact. These products tend to be cheaper in price, but they also have a much shorter shelf-life due to the fish having viscera still intact.
Wild Caught – A product that was naturally born or hatchery-originated and released in the wild, and caught taken or harvested from non-controlled waters or bed; and fillets, steaks, nuggets and any other flesh from a wild product.
X
Y
Z