A Manual on Acoustic Surveys: Sampling Methods for Acoustic Surveys













Table of Contents


INTERREGIONAL FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME - INT/79/019

CECAF/ECAF SERIES 80/17 (En)

FISHERY COMMITTEE FOR THE EASTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC

Edited by

G.P. Bazigos
FAO-Fishery Resources Officer
Marine Resources Service
Fishery Resources and Environment Division

This manual has been prepared as a result of the Training Course on Acoustic and Trawling Surveys, held at the ISPM Casablanca, on 2-14 June 1980

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Rome, 1981

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.


The copyright in this book is vested in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any method or process, without written permission from the copyright holder. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction desired, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

© FAO

This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software and careful manual recorrection. Even if the quality of digitalisation is high, the FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.


Table of Contents


PREFACE

1. PRINCIPLES OF THE USE OF THE SONAR SYSTEM FOR FISH BIOMASS ESTIMATES

1.1 The sonar system
1.2 Time varied gain (T.V.G.)
1.3 Acoustic reflecting properties of fish
1.4 The echo-integrator
1.5 Calibration
1.6 Performance check of equipment

2. PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF ACOUSTIC SURVEY PROGRAMMES

2.1 Main steps involved
2.2 Practical problems arising in obtaining the required information
2.3 Behaviour pattern of fish and its effect on biomass estimates

3. PROBLEMS ARISING IN THE ESTIMATION OF POPULATION TOTALS

3.1 Introduction
3.2 The vertical migratory process (daytime observations)

3.2.1. The structure of sample data
3.2.2 De-biasing sample estimates

3.2.2.1 Matching echo-integrator and sonar estimates

3.3 Night-time biomass estimates

4. SONAR SURVEYS

4.1 Introduction
4.2 The effective sonar range
4.3 Estimating school sizes

4.3.1 Estimated school dimensions from sonar traces
4.3.2 Estimation of mean school weight
4.3.3 Estimated PD tolerance limits3

4.3.3.1 Methodologies used for estimating packing density coefficient (PD)

4.4 Sonar biomass estimates

4.4.1 Introduction
4.4.2 The estimation process

4.5 Improving the precision of sonar biomass estimates
4.6 Example

5. ECHO-SOUNDER SURVEYS

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Characteristics of sampling

5.2.1 Methods of line transect sampling

5.3 Estimation of population values

5.3.1 Regular line transect sampling
5.3.2 Random line transect sampling

5.4 Construction of error graphs
5.5 Measurement errors in school sizes
5.6 Precision increasing methods
5.7 Rotation system of acoustic surveys
5.8 The accuracy problem of calibration coefficient

5.8.1 Estimated precision

5.9 Variance of products

6. FACTORS GIVING RISE TO BIAS

6.1 Directed movement of fish with respect to the survey tracks
6.2 Avoidance effect
6.3 Overlapping survey layers
6.4 Shallow water
6.5 Water temperature and the propagation of the sonar beam
6.6 Quality of raw material used
6.7 Accuracy of calibration constant
6.8 Biomass species composition
6.9 The actual accuracy problem of acoustic surveys

7. PROCESSING AND PRESENTATION

7.1 The codification system
7.2 Processing, tabulation, graphical presentation

8. PLOTTING CHARTS OF RELATIVE ABUNDANCE

9. EVALUATION OF THE FINDINGS

10. CONCURRENT TRAWLING SURVEYS

10.1 Introduction
10.2 Methods of sampling
10.3 Verification of the counts obtained
10.4 Random sampling

10.4.1 Estimated indices
10.4.2 Estimated abundance
10.4.3 The sample size
10.4.4 The logarithmic transformation and the estimation of the confidence limits (small samples)

11. DECK SAMPLING FOR SPECIES COMPOSITION

11.1 Introduction
11.2 Deck sampling methods

11.2.1 Direct sampling for proportions

11.2.1.1 More than one haul

11.2.2 Cluster sampling for proportions
11.2.3 Multi-stage sampling for proportions

APPENDIX I: THE NEGATIVE BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION

APPENDIX II: FITTING A MATHEMATICAL MODEL TO THE ACOUSTIC DATA OF LAKE TANGANYIKA1

REFERENCES