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When good neighbours become good friends: observing small scalestructures in fish aggregations using multibeam sonar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2010

Francois Gerlotto ,
Emma Jones ,
Nicolas Bez  and
David G. Reid
Francois Gerlotto*
Affiliation:
IRD, CRH, avenue Jean Monnet, 34203 Sète, France
Emma Jones
Affiliation:
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA), 269 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, Auckland 1023, PO Box 109-695, Newmarket, Auckland 1149, New Zealand
Nicolas Bez
Affiliation:
IRD, CRH, avenue Jean Monnet, 34203 Sète, France
David G. Reid
Affiliation:
Marine Institute, Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway, Ireland
*
a Corresponding author:francois.gerlotto@ird.fr
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Abstract

Converging results in different scientific fields (behavioural ecology, fisheriesbiology, acoustic tagging, fisheries acoustics, behavioural modelling) suggest theexistence of “micro-groups” inside fish schools. These would comprise a few (5–10) fishmaintaining contact during a period long enough to allow individuals to recognise eachother. It is hypothesised that they would prefer to share the space with familiar ratherthan anonymous conspecifics. To evaluate whether acoustic methods could be used torecognise “micro-structures” inside fish schools and help test the “micro-group” hypothesiswe analysed acoustic data from anchovy schools off Peru, and gadoids in the North Sea.Data collection used a multibeam sonar (Reson SeaBat 6012). In the Peruvian case study,the sonar was mounted set horizontally on a drifting research vessel and the internalstructure of the schools of anchovies was analysed, although individual fish could not bediscriminated. In the North Sea case study, the sonar was orientated vertically above ademersal trawl to allow observation of individual fish entering the trawl. Geostatisticalanalyses were used to evaluate the existence of small spatial structures in anchovyschools. In these schools, “micro-structures” with a scale as small as 0.5 m were observedacoustically. For the gadoids nearest neighbour distance (NDD) measurements were carriedout, suggesting that the fish aggregated in small groups (2 to 25 individuals, with anaverage of 3.7 fish per group) in the trawl catches. The perspectives and limitations ofthese results are discussed.

Keywords

AnchovyBehaviourGeostatisticsMultibeam sonarFish schoolSpatial structureMicro-group
Type
Research Article
Information
Aquatic Living Resources , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 143 - 151
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, IFREMER, IRD 2010

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