Accurately estimating the 3D position of underwater objects is of great interest when doing research on marine animals. An inherent problem of 3D reconstruction of underwater positions is the presence of refraction which invalidates the assumption of a single viewpoint. Three ways of performing 3D reconstruction on underwater objects are compared in this work: an approach relying solely on in-air camera calibration, an approach with the camera calibration performed under water and an approach based on ray tracing with Snell's law. As expected, the in-air camera calibration showed to be the most inaccurate as it does not take refraction into account. The precision of the estimated 3D positions based on the underwater camera calibration and the ray tracing based approach were, on the other hand, almost identical. However, the ray tracing based approach is found to be advantageous as it is far more flexible in terms of the calibration procedure due to the decoupling of the intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters.
The reformed European Common Fisheries Policy introduced a discard ban, with a possibility of exempting species where a high discard survival can be demonstrated. This necessitates a validation of the methods used for estimating the discard mortality of candidate species. In this study, we assess whether reflex impairment can predict short-term mortality in commercially trawled European plaice upon landing and after air exposure of up to 90 min. Sub-lethal stress was assessed by a suite of physiological variables. Over a 10-day period, mortality was monitored for a total of 199 plaice following trawl and air exposure of varying duration, and for 50 control fish scored for reflex impairment on board the vessel. Mortality was only observed in fish exposed to air for >60 min, and averaged 11.1% (95% CI = 7.1–16.3%). Reflex impairment was found to be a significant (P < 0.001) predictor of mortality in a generalized linear model, excluding other initially included variables by using a stepwise method. Plasma cortisol, haematocrit, and plasma osmolality all indicated a profound and increasing level of stress with air exposure, accompanied by a near depletion of muscle phosphocreatine and nucleotides. Fishing site had an unexpected, but significant (p < 0.05) effect on stress levels, which was also reflected in reflex impairment and mortality. Based on these findings, a possible exemption from the discard ban should include considerations on the duration of air exposure.
Gillnet selectivity curves for North Sea Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) were fitted to catch data obtained with six different mesh sizes. The selectivity curves investigated included frequently used selectivity models following the normal, lognormal, and gamma distributions. Another group of selectivity models that take the method of capture (gilled, maxillae, or "randomly" enmeshed) into consideration was also included. The best description of the selection data was found for the latter models. Therefore, the capture processes and girth measurements should be recorded as a matter of routine and such data used when constructing and evaluating gillnet selectivity models. The shape of the selectivity curve for those size intervals where there were satisfactory catch information was well defined, while the selection curve was ambiguous outside the interval with adequate data. Ambiguities in the shape of the selectivity curve can be diminished by choosing an appropriate range in mesh sizes and ensuring that the mesh sizes match the size distribution of the population fished. It is furthermore suggested that the estimated length distribution of the fish encountering the nets be robust to misspecification of the selectivity model.
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