Acoustic remote sensing of swimbladder orientation and species mix in the oreo population on the Chatham Rise

A method for combining in situ measurements and theoretical swimbladder-derived estimates of target strength of the deep-water fish, black and smooth oreos, is described. The technique uses Monte Carlo simulation and yields fish length-target strength relationships suitable for use in estimating biomass from echo integration acoustic surveys. The relationships are derived from estimates of the mean and standard deviation of the tilt angle distributions of the wild fish generated by the method. The relationships may also be used to estimate proportions of the two oreo species in the wild. The mean tilt angle of black oreos in the wild was about 10 degrees with a standard deviation of 8 degrees. For smooth oreos it was close to zero with a standard deviation of about 4 degrees. The target strength relationships derived for biomass estimation purposes were TSB= -78.05+25.3 log10(L)+1.62 sin(0.0815L+0.238) and TSS = -82.16+24.6 log10(L)+1.03 sin(0.1165L-1.765), where L is the fish length and TSB and TSS are the target strengths of black and smooth oreos respectively.