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When good neighbours become good friends: observing small scale structures 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, fisheries biology, acoustic tagging, fisheries acoustics, behavioural modelling) suggest the existence of “micro-groups” inside fish schools. These would comprise a few (5–10) fish maintaining contact during a period long enough to allow individuals to recognise each other. It is hypothesised that they would prefer to share the space with familiar rather than anonymous conspecifics. To evaluate whether acoustic methods could be used to recognise “micro-structures” inside fish schools and help test the “micro-group” hypothesis we 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 internal structure of the schools of anchovies was analysed, although individual fish could not be discriminated. In the North Sea case study, the sonar was orientated vertically above a demersal trawl to allow observation of individual fish entering the trawl. Geostatistical analyses were used to evaluate the existence of small spatial structures in anchovy schools. In these schools, “micro-structures” with a scale as small as 0.5 m were observed acoustically. For the gadoids nearest neighbour distance (NDD) measurements were carried out, suggesting that the fish aggregated in small groups (2 to 25 individuals, with an average of 3.7 fish per group) in the trawl catches. The perspectives and limitations of these 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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