Spatio-temporal patterns in pelagic fish school abundance and size: a study of pelagic fish aggregation using acoustic surveys from Senegal to Shetland

As part of the EU funded project CLUSTER, databases were constructed of pelagic fish schools identified during a series of acoustic surveys in the NW North Sea, Bay of Biscay, western Mediterranean and Agean Seas and off Senegal. Among other descriptors, the databases usually included the height, length and energy (S,,) of each school. The number of schoo!.s per 1 nmi EDSU was also recorded. The relationship between these descriptors and a range of external variables (eg bottom depth, time of day and location) were examined using a suite of multiple regression models. The results indicate strong non-linear dependencies in some of the surveys on time of day and water depth. School count per EDSU tended to be high during the middle part of the day and lower at dawn and dusk. Furthermore, the ‘shape’ of this dependence on time of day is non-constant and changes with location and year. Possible explanations for such patterns and the differences and similarities between the survey areas will be discussed, as well as the impact of these findings on the conduct and analysis of acoustic surveys. In addition, we have examined the spatio-temporal pattern of sampling in each of the survey series and we will present an analysis of the impact of survey design on the potential for such spatio-temporal modelling studies

On the relation between schools, clusters of schools and abundance in pelagic fish stocks

Small pelagic fish are known to aggregate into schools and clusters of schools. It is commonly assumed that the number of such schools and clusters, as well as their size and densities, will vary with the stock abundance. We have carried out a PCA based meta-analysis, using series of acoustic survey data from five different locations in Europe to examine this assumption. The study concluded that there was no discernible relationship between stock abundance and the number of schools seen, or on the clustering of those schools. The study also showed that the number and structure of the school clusters was strongly correlated with the number of schools seen. An increased number of schools in an area tended to be linked with denser clusters (more schools per kilometre) and a higher occupation of the survey area by those clusters. There was also a weaker tendency to find more clusters. It is not clear whether these relationships and the absence of a link to abundance are due to density independence in aggregation patterns or whether such density dependence is only functional at relatively low stock abundance levels.Publicado

Consistency in the correlation of school parameters across years and stocks

Acoustic surveys have been undertaken in different parts of the waters around Europe. In this paper we consider those taking place in NE Atlantic waters – off the NE Scottish coast, the Bay of Biscay and off the Spanish Atlantic coast – and in the Mediterranean Sea – the Catalonian Sea, the Gulf of Lion and the Aegean Sea. Retained school variables were: corrected school length (m), school height (m), school area (m2), school perimeter (m), school energy (Nautical area scattering coefficent, SA), school density (energy vs. area), school depth (m) and bottom-depth-under-school (m). STATIS (Structuration de Tableux à Trois Indices de la Statisque), a multi-table analysis based on the Principal Component Analysis was used to analyse the correlation in different schools, parameters and intra- and interstock relationships. In all stocks, the first three axes extracted explained between 86.89% (Sete) and 91.84% (Aberdeen) of the total variance, because the annual variability present in the correlation structure of each stock is not widely dispersed. In all stocks, the first factorial axis was typified by the morphological variables (school length, school height, school area and school perimeter), which showed a very clear pattern with all of them being closely related. There were major differences between all stocks in regard to the general correlation relationship of the energetic variables analysed i.e. school energy and school density. Energy and density showed less variability than the morphological variables in all stocks with the exception of one survey. There were some differences between stocks in relation to the correlation of bathymetric variables. In all cases, school density and, to a lesser extent, school energy were opposed to the bathymetric variables, so that schools with higher densities would be located near the surface and in shallower areas. A complete analysis of all the surveys of each stock showed a homogeneous pattern which was very similar to most of the stocks considered separately. All morphological variables are well grouped and show a strong positive correlation. In general, therefore, all the schools analysed increased and decreased equally in all their dimensions. Both bathymetric variables are strongly correlated.Publicado