Using acoustic data from pelagic fishing vessels to monitor fish stocks

Abstract

Pelagic trawlers make intensive use of echosounders and therefore could potentially be used as acoustic data collection platforms. The present project has investigated the possibility of collecting acoustic data during normal fishing trips and the potential of this data to estimate fish stock biomass. Within this project, two real-scale data collection trials were realised, one in spring 2012 during the blue whiting fishing season, and one in summer 2012 during the North Sea herring and sprat fishing season