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Publication year : 0
Thematic : Ecological Economics
Language : English
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Acoustic methods of characterizing micronekton communities (2 to 20 cm length) on the scale of an ocean basin could provide
valuable inputs to ecosystem-based fishery management, marine planning, and monitoring the effects of climate change. The micronekton
fish are important forage for top predators (e.g. tunas), and information on their diversity, distribution, size-structure, and
abundance is needed to increase accuracy of top-predator distribution and abundance predictions. At the scale of an ocean basin,
four years of Tasman Sea transects using a fishing vessel provide fine-scale maps of acoustic backscatter at 38 kHz that reveal detailed
spatial patterns and structure to depths of 1200 m. Research-vessel data provide detailed biodiversity, density, size structure, and
acoustic-scattering information from depth-stratified net sampling and a lowered acoustic probe. Wet-weight biomass estimates of
the micronekton fish in the region vary considerably by a factor of 5–58 between acoustics (16–29 g m22), nets (1.6 g m22), and
large spatial-scale, ecological models (0.5–3 g m22). We demonstrate the potential and challenges of an acoustic basin-scale,
fishing-vessel monitoring programme, including optical and net sensing, which could assist in characterizing the biodiversity,
distribution, and biomass of the micronekton fish.
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Keywords : Dobsonia chapmani
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
