Quantifying fish behaviour and commercial catch rates in relation to a marine seismic survey

Marine Environmental Research
Barry BruceRachel Przeslawski

Abstract

The impact of seismic surveys on the catchability of marine fish is a contentious issue, with some claims that seismic surveys may negatively affect catch rates. However little empirical evidence exists to quantify the impacts or identify the mechanisms of such impact. In this study, we used a 2-D seismic survey in the Gippsland Basin, Bass Strait, Australia in April 2015 as an opportunity to quantify fish behaviour (field-based) and commercial fisheries catch (desktop study) across the region before and after airgun operations. Three species found in abundance (gummy shark, swell shark, tiger flathead) were acoustically tagged and released within one of two acoustic arrays (experimental and control zone) and monitored before, during and after the seismic survey. In the field study, only 35% of the gummy sharks and 30% of the swell sharks were subsequently detected two days after release, suggesting movement outside the study area. Various tagged individuals returned sporadically over the monitoring period, including during the seismic survey operations. Behaviour consistent with a possible response to the seismic survey operations was observed for flathead which increased their swimming speed during the seismic survey period a...Continue Reading

References

Feb 1, 2003·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Robert D McCauleyArthur N Popper
Jul 16, 2005·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Arthur N PopperDavid A Mann
Sep 15, 2010·PloS One·Kelly S AndrewsPhillip S Levin

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Citations

Feb 11, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Inge van der KnaapHans Slabbekoorn
Jul 21, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Mark G MeekanMiles J G Parsons

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