Epsilon Open Archive

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.