• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.13-20
• /
• 1991

This paper describes the fish-density dependence of the mean backscattering strength with aggregations of encaged, free-swimming fish of known density in relation to the experimental verification of echo-integration technique for estimating the density of fish shoals. In this experiment, various numbers of gold crussian, Carassius burgeri burgeri, with a mean length of 18.5cm and a mean weight of 205.9g, were introduced into a net cage of approximately 0.76m super(3). During the backscattering measurements. the cage was suspended on the sound axis of the 50kHz transducer having a beam width of 33 degrees at -3dB downpoints. The volume backscattering strengths from fish aggregations were measured as a function of fish density. Data acquisition, processing and analysis were performed by means of the microcomputer-based sonar-echo processor including a FFT analyzer. The calibration of echo-sounder system was carried out at field with a steel ball bearing of 38mm in diameter having the target strength of -40.8dB. The dorsal-aspect target strengths on anesthetized specimens of gold crussian used in the cage experiment were measured and compared with the target strength predicted by the fish density-echo energy relationship for aggregations of free-swimming gold crussian in the cage. The results obtained can be summarized as follows: 1. The target strengths in the dorsal aspect on anesthetized specimens of gold crussian, with the mean length of 19.1cm and the mean weight of 210.5g, varied from -40.9dB to -44.8dB with a mean of -42.6dB. This mean target strength did not differ significantly from that predicted by the regression of echo energy on fish density of free-swimming gold crussian in the cage. It suggests that the target-strength measurements on anesthetized fish was valid and can be representative for live, free-swimming fish. 2. The relationship between mean backscattering strength(, dB) and distribution density of gold $crussian(\rho, $ fish/m super(3)) was expressed by the following equation; =-41.9+11 $Log(\rho)$ with a correlation coefficient of 0.97. This result support the existence of a linear relationship between fish density and echo energy, but suggest that this line has steeper slope than the regression by the theory of estimating the density of fish schools.