Thursday
20 January 2005
4:30-5:30 pm
102 Fishery Sciences
(auditorium)
Social follows talk
David ReidGroup Leader, Fish Distribution and Behaviour Group, Fisheries Research Services, Marine Laboratory, AberdeenSchools, Clusters, and Sustainability: Acoustic Studies of Fish
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The presentation and discussion will be based around a collaborative EU project looking at aggregation patterns in pelagic fish. Pelagics are well known to aggregate into schools, probably as a defence mechanism. Such schools will often have a wide range of sizes and structures. There is also evidence that schools themselves are aggregated into clusters of schools. Within the project we developed a school database from a series of five acoustic surveys for herring covering six years during which the stock abundance changes markedly. The presentation will consider methods for identifying schools, including the vexed question of “what is a school?” It will also look at ways of clustering adjacent schools together. Given that the abundance changed over the period, what happened to the aggregation pattern; were there less schools, smaller schools, less aggregated into clusters or what? This is a development of the hypothesis that the last fishing boat in the North Sea could catch the last school of herring in the North Sea. Was there a link with other species aggregations in the area, or with topography or substrate? Can the study of fish aggregations patterns help us in our surveysmake them more precise or accurate, change the design? Are the patterns consistent over the years? And finally, is there consistency in the aggregation patterns of pelagic clupeids between species and ecosystems. The presentation will illustrate many of the joys and heartbreaks of attempting to study fish behaviour in the wildwhen you can only see them through a glass darkly (in this case with an echosounder).
Over the last 25 years I have had a varied career in marine science, but the emphasis has always been on animal behaviour and behavioural ecology. I did my PhD in Bangor UK on rhythmic behaviour in intertidal isopods. I then moved up a scale and worked on shore crabs: rhythms, mating behaviour, physiology and behavioural ecology. My next move was to the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen. Initially I worked here on acoustic surveys and image processing techniques. This quickly diversified into a massive project on the European shelf break, fisheries and oceanography (the ecosystem approach 10 years too early!!!). Since 1995 I have worked in a wide range of topics including egg and acoustic surveys, aggregation patterns in pelagic fish, mackerel migrations, long-term changes in fish distribution, acoustic sea-bed classification, fish behaviour in relation to survey gears and much morea scientific dilettante! I even led a Marine Ecosystems programme for a while.
Currently I lead a research group on fish distribution and behaviour, although I will move into fishing gear research shortly. I am chairman of the ICES Living Resources Committee, and a member of ICES Advisory Committee on Fisheries Management and Consultative Committee. I chair ICES Working Groups on mackerel egg surveys and survey trawl standardisation, and am a member of too many other groups. I am an honorary lecturer in Fisheries Science at the University of Aberdeen and supervise MSc and PhD students. And finally, I am a member of a loud and enthusiastic street drumming bandbookings welcomewill travel!