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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on May 12, 2009
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(6):1355-1363; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsp136
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© 2009 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: The Ecosystem Approach with Fisheries Acoustics and Complementary Technologies [View the issue table of contents]

How much fish is hidden in the surface and bottom acoustic blind zones?

Carla Scalabrin1, Christian Marfia2 and Jean Boucher1

1 Ifremer, PO Box 70, 29280 Plouzane, France
2 Ifremer, Z. P. de Brégaillon, 83530 La Seyne sur Mer, France

Correspondence to Carla Scalabrin: tel: +33 (2) 98224618; fax: +33 (2) 98224653; e-mail: carla.scalabrin{at}ifremer.fr.

Scalabrin, C., Marfia, C., and Boucher, J. 2009. How much fish is hidden in the surface and bottom acoustic blind zones? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1355–1363.

This paper presents results from the ALLEGRO-07 survey that was carried out from 1 to 15 September 2007 across the continental shelf in the Bay of Biscay by the RV "Thalassa". The main objectives were to conduct experiments with a medium-sized, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with a fishery-acoustic scientific payload. This was needed to overcome the difficulties of sampling the surface and bottom blind zones, which are inaccessible to conventional, vessel-mounted transducers used for acoustic surveys in the Bay of Biscay. The AUV acoustic datasets from four dives were compared with those from the research vessel. The results were expressed for the nautical-area-scattering coefficient (sA) and biomass estimates. The AUV provided higher sA measurements than did the vessel. For particular environmental and fish-distribution patterns, the biomass estimated by the AUV was more than ten times that estimated by the vessel alone. The results presented indicate the magnitude of the error that may occur in acoustic surveys, if the biomass in the two blind zones is undetected.

Keywords: acoustic blind zone, anchovy, autonomous underwater vehicles, Bay of Biscay, hake

Received 8 August 2008; accepted 20 January 2009; advance access publication 12 May 2009.


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