Pat, a fisherman in San Diego, hears mariners use snotty weather for rough offshore conditions, such as large swells, whitecaps, and wind above 10 or 15 knots. The phrase does not seem to mean cold weather that brings sniffles. Examples go back at...
DFD-er n.— «The trip to Rockaway Beach involves riding the A train over a different sort of New York landmark: Jamaica Bay. At the 116th Street stop is a busy area with delis and beach shops and, where 116th Street meets the ocean, an...
wet fish n.— «Both fish reside in the middle-water column of the ocean, causing those in the fishing industry to refer to them as “wet fish.” This means that a lot of water must be pulled into boats when scooping them in from...
acoustic ranching n.— «Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole hope to prove fish can be trained to associate certain sounds with feeding, by putting thousands of black sea bass in a dome-shaped structure at the...
bomb pulse n.— «Because of atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs between 1945 and 1960, the atmosphere received a sharp spike of carbon-14, commonly called the “bomb pulse,” that has been declining to normal levels as excess...
king tide n.— «During a King Tide, which is what the islanders call the highest tides of the year, waves rolling off the ocean can have a devastating effect.…A typical high tide reaches about two-and-a-half metres, while a King Tide...

