Fish do not avoid survey vessels

The precarious condition of the world's fisheries is making ever-greater demands of the scientific assessment of fish stocks. Traditional assessment that rely on commercial catch statistics can have major shortcomings (as shown, for example, by the collapse of Canada's northern cod stock),...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2000-03, Vol.404 (6773), p.35-36
Main Authors: Fernandes, P G, Brierley, A S, Simmonds, E J, Millard, N W, McPhail, S D, Armstrong, F, Stevenson, P, Squires, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Avoidance Learning
Fishes - physiology
Marine
Oceanography
Ships
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Summary:The precarious condition of the world's fisheries is making ever-greater demands of the scientific assessment of fish stocks. Traditional assessment that rely on commercial catch statistics can have major shortcomings (as shown, for example, by the collapse of Canada's northern cod stock), increasing the need for more fishery-independent data. Acoustic surveys can provide such information, but ocean-going research vessels have high operating costs, and there is also widespread concern that fish avoid these vessels because of the noise they make, thereby biasing abundance estimates. Here we present new data gathered by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) showing that vessels avoidance is not a significant source of bias. Our investigation also heralds the arrival of AUVs as effective survey platforms.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35003648