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Report, 2016

Applying the European hydroacoustic standard on fish abundance estimation (EN 15910) : survey experiences from three European countries

Axenrot, Thomas; Guillard, Jean; Riha, Milan; Tušer, Michal

Abstract

Hydroacoustics is an internationally approved method to study fish for abundance estimates and behaviour to increase our understanding of aquatic ecosystems. In Europe and North- America, the need to compare results between years, lakes and countries has been recognized and as a consequence of this, acoustic methods are being standardized. To study how the European standard Water quality – Guidance on the estimation of fish abundance with mobile hydroacoustic methods (CEN 2014) was perceived by different users, a joint evaluation of the implementation of the standard was performed in 2014 by hydroacoustic experts from three European countries. In some parts of the standard the participants´ actions were different from what was described by the standard, and in some cases methods differed among the participants. A general explanation for most of these cases was that stable equipment performance and experience from discrete surveys reduce the need of controlling actions. We suggest that the results of this study should be considered at the revision of the standard (EN 15910) scheduled for 2017.

Keywords

Aquatic ecosystems; fish abundance; hydroacoustics; standardization; water quality

Published in

Aqua reports
2016, number: 2016:18
ISBN: 978-91-576-9451-5
Publisher: Department of Aquatic Resources, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences