Estimating the Density of Antarctic Krill ( Euphausia Superba) from Multi-Beam Echo-Sounder Observations Using Distance Sampling Methods

• Published in: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C (Applied Statistics)
• Main Authors: Cox, Martin J., Borchers, David L., Demer, David A., Cutter, George R., Brierley, Andrew S.
• Other Authors: UK Natural Environment Research Council, National Science Foundation
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2011
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Krill; Euphausia superba
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9876.2010.00748.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1467-9876.2010.00748.x; https://academic.oup.com/jrsssc/article-pdf/60/2/301/49549433/jrsssc_60_2_301.pdf

Summary Antarctic krill is a key species in the Antarctic food web, an important prey item for marine predators and a commercial fishery resource. Although single-beam echo-sounders are commonly used to survey the species, multi-beam echo-sounders may be more efficient because they sample a larger volume of water. However, multi-beam echo-sounders may miss animals because they involve lower energy densities. We adapt distance sampling theory to deal with this and to estimate krill density and biomass from a multi-beam echo-sounder survey. The method provides a general means for estimating density and biomass from multi-beam echo-sounder data.