Herring Acoustic Survey

Herring Acoustic Survey

Wageningen Marine Research leads the Dutch part of the North Sea herring acoustic survey. Follow the researchers in their blog!

» Read the Ship Blog: http://herringsurvey.blogspot.nl

The area the Dutch researchers are responsible for is indicated in orange on the map below. The researchers will be on board the Dutch fisheries research vessel Tridens to survey the area on a systematic, predefined cruise track. The combined internationally coordinated effort will deliver an estimate of the herring stock size in the North Sea.

The Dutch survey the orange area
The Dutch survey the orange area
Planned transect for Tridens during the international Herring Acoustic Survey (HERAS) in 2021.
Planned transect for Tridens during the international Herring Acoustic Survey (HERAS) in 2021.

During the survey we continuously send out vertical sound waves through the water and collect acoustic backscatter data. We can visualise these data in a so-called ‘echogram’ – essentially a 2-dimensional slice through the water column. Once we have completed the survey of the area, we combine all the echo energy that was reflected by herring and convert it into fish numbers and weight.

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