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swordfish

(Encyclopedia)swordfish, large food and game fish, Xiphias gladius, of the warmer Atlantic and Pacific waters. It is named for its sharp, broad, elongated upper jaw, which it uses to flail and injure its prey of sm...

Cárdenas, García López de

(Encyclopedia)Cárdenas, García López de gärthēˈä lōˈpĕth dā kärˈdānäs [key], fl. 1540, Spanish explorer in the Southwest. A member of the 1540 expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, he was sel...

duck

(Encyclopedia)duck, common name for wild and domestic waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and swans. It is hunted and bred for its meat, eggs, and feathers. Strictly speaking, duck refers to...

sturgeon

(Encyclopedia)sturgeon, primitive fish of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike evolutionarily advanced fishes, it has a fine-grained hide, with very reduced scalation, a mostly cartilagin...

Mersey

(Encyclopedia)Mersey mûrˈzē [key], river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, formed at Stockport, W England, by the confluence of the Etherow and Goyt rivers. It flows east to the Irish Sea near Liverpool. The estuary of th...

Lowestoft

(Encyclopedia)Lowestoft lōˈstôft, –stəf [key], city (1991 pop. 55,231), Suffolk, the easternmost city in England. It is a popular seaside resort and has fishing, shipbuilding, food processing, and other light...

Kern

(Encyclopedia)Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has ...

Kariba Dam

(Encyclopedia)Kariba Dam kärēˈbä [key], hydroelectric project, in Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River, on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, S central Africa; built 1955–59. One of the world's largest dams, it is 420 ...

mudskipper

(Encyclopedia)mudskipper, name for fish of several genera in the subfamily Oxudercinae of the goby family, found in coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans and on the Atlantic coast of Africa. The typically...

Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de

(Encyclopedia)Freycinet, Louis Claude Desaulses de də frāsēnāˈ [key], 1779–1842, French marine officer. He was assigned (1800) to a French exploring expedition in Australian waters; after his return to Pari...