S. 2004. Diel patterns in pelagic fish behaviour and distribution observed from a stationary, bottom-mounted, and upward-facing transducer. e ICES Journal of Marine Science, 61: 1100e1104.Diel variation in pelagic fish distribution influences hydroacoustic abundance estimates. To study and quantify diel patterns in behaviour and spatial distribution in pelagic fish without causing avoidance reactions or attraction to any floating equipment or vessel we used a bottom-mounted, upward-facing transducer. Light intensities were measured as skylight and underwater light (at 5-m depth). The study was performed in a coastal area in the Baltic Sea, late July to mid-August in 2001 and 2002. The results provided additional information on fish behaviour and distribution valuable for future survey planning and in the analyses of hydroacoustic data from regular surveys in this area. At night, the data on hydroacoustic backscattering (s A ) were less variable, the vertical distribution of fish was more even, with fewer fish in the deepest layer, and the percentage of single-echo detections was higher. The tilt angle of fish seemed to differ day and night, but trawling and target-strength distribution results taken together also implied a partial diel change in the fish assemblage in the midwater layers. The processes of formation and disintegration of schools happened rapidly and coincided with day and night transition periods.

Diel vertical migration (DVM) of young-of-the-year (YOY) herring Clupea harengus and one of their major predators, pikeperch Sander lucioperca, was examined using bottom-mounted hydroacoustics in Himmerfjärden, a brackish bay of the Baltic Sea, in summer. In contrast to previous studies on DVM of C. harengus aggregated across size and age classes, YOY C. harengus showed a reverse DVM trajectory, deeper at night and, on average, shallower during the day. This pattern was observed consistently on five acoustic sampling occasions in 3 years and was corroborated by two out of three trawl surveys. Large acoustic targets (target strength >-33 dB, probably piscivorous S. lucioperca >45 cm) showed a classic DVM trajectory, shallow at night and deeper during the day. Variability in YOY C. harengus vertical distribution peaked at dawn and dusk, and their vertical distribution at midday was distinctly bimodal. This reverse DVM pattern was consistent with bioenergetic model predictions for YOY C. harengus which have rapid gut evacuation rates and do not feed at night. Reverse DVM also resulted in low spatial overlap with predators.

Didrikas, T., and Hansson, S. 2009. Effects of light intensity on activity and pelagic dispersion of fish: studies with a seabed-mounted echosounder. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 388–395. A seabed-mounted, upwards-pinging echosounder was used to study fish activity and pelagic dispersion in relation to fish size, light, and temperature. Four phases (day, dusk, night, dawn) in fish dispersion were distinguished over the diel cycle, and the swimming speed of fish varied among these phases. Notably, average swimming speed by day was twice as high as by night. For all phases combined, fish size, light intensity, and temperature explained 52% of the variability in swimming speed. When different phases were analysed separately, fish size was the most important variable by day, whereas light had the strongest effects on swimming speed in the evening. During the mornings, variability in swimming speed was best correlated with temperature, but by night all factors (fish size, light intensity, temperature) had similar effects on activity. These results have implications for fish bioenergetics models. Such models should account for seasonal, light-driven cycles in activity-induced respiration estimates, in particular when modelling populations at high latitudes.

exhibit a preparatory antioxidant response, protecting them from oxidative damage during migrations. The acoustic data showed peaks of crustacean zooplankton biomass in hypoxic (<2 mL L −1 ) and low oxygen (2-4 mL L −1 ) concentrations (depth >75 m), whereas fish shoals and A. aurita medusae were found in normoxic (5-6 mL L −1 ) upper water layers (<40 m), with individual fish in deeper water excepting that rule. Mysid shrimp from areas with hypoxia had significantly enhanced antioxidant potential compared with conspecifics from areas with no hypoxia and had no significant indications of oxidative damage. We conclude that mysids can protect themselves from oxidative damage, enabling them to inhabit hypoxic water. Our data suggest that hypoxic and low oxygen zones (up to 4 mL L −1 ) may provide some zooplankton species with a refuge from visual predators such as fish.

Didrikas, T., and Hansson, S. 2004. In situ target strength of the Baltic Sea herring and sprat. e ICES Journal of Marine Science, 61: 378e382.Using single-and split-beam hydroacoustic equipment (70 and 38 kHz), and gillnet and trawl catches, we derived the relationship TS ¼ 25:5 log 10 L ÿ 73:6 (r 2 ¼ 0:95) between acoustic target strength (TS) and fish length (L, cm) for Baltic Sea herring (Clupea harengus membras L.) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus (Schneider)). Fixing the slope to 20, which is a standard practice in hydroacoustics, gave TS ¼ 20 log 10 L ÿ 67:8 (r 2 ¼ 0:91). Normally, the fisheries agencies around the Baltic use a TSelength relationship that is based mainly on data from the North Sea and the intercept-value in this equation is 3.4 dB lower than that reported in this paper. This difference corresponds to an approximately twofold difference in assessed stock biomass.