Acoustic Resonance Classification of Swimbladder-Bearing Fish

• Main Authors: Stanton, Timothy K., Chu, Dezhang, Jech, J. M.
• Other Authors: WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION MA DEPT OF APPLIED OCEAN PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Biology; Acoustic Detection and Detectors; Acoustics; Radiofrequency Wave Propagation; *SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; *TOWED SONAR; *SIZES(DIMENSIONS); *ACOUSTIC RESONANCE; *FISHES; *ACOUSTIC SCATTERING; *CLASSIFICATION; *BROADBAND; DAY; TOWED ARRAYS; NIGHT; BEHAVIOR; MASSACHUSETTS; HABITATS; SONAR ECHOES; NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; DIURNAL VARIATIONS; NARROWBAND; SONAR ARRAYS; LONG RANGE(DISTANCE); RESONANT FREQUENCY; ACOUSTIC DETECTION; MIGRATION; *RESONANCE SCATTERING; *SWIMBLADDER-BEARING FISH; *FISH DISTRIBUTIONS; *RESONANCE CLASSIFICATION; MIXED ASSEMBLAGES; FISH AGGREGATIONS; SPATIAL VARIABILITY; TEMPORAL VARIABILITY; FISH SIZE CLASS; RESONANCE FREQUENCY; DEPTH DEPENDENCE; ATLANTIC HERRING; ECHOGRAMS; ECHOSOUNDERS; NET SAMPLES; GEORGES BANK; CAPE COD(MASSACHUSETTS); North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA531334; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA531334

The long-term goal of this research is to understand and exploit the resonance scattering by swimbladder-bearing fish (typically in the 1-10 kHz frequency region). Exploitation of the resonances can significantly reduce ambiguities in interpreting acoustic scattering in terms of meaningful biological parameters compared with traditional higher frequency approaches and other lower frequency narrowband approaches. The specific objective of this study is to conduct a new class of quantitative acoustic studies of scattering by swimbladder-bearing fish utilizing new broadband-acoustic technology that is optimized for use in the resonance scattering region of fish. This research is principally focused on taking advantage of a modified commercial system that was originally designed for marine geological and gas/oil exploration. It is especially attractive for use in studying swimbladder-bearing fish because this system was optimized for use in the frequency band in which swimbladders may resonate. The off-the-shelf sensors on the system (in particular, the transmitters and receivers) were selected and configured in a manner best suited for the fish application. The system is being used for studying distributions of fish in their natural habitat. The research is part of a NOAA/NMFS fisheries study and includes trawling for sampling the fish and traditional high frequency echosounders for comparison. Data are being interpreted in terms of physics-based scattering models whose parameters may be determined empirically as a result of the measurements.