Ultrasound backscatter from free-swimming fish at 1 MHz for fish identification

In the frequency range well below 1 MHz, the swimbladder is often considered the most important part for acoustic fish detection. In this work a portable system was developed to not only detect but also try to identify free-swimming fish. It has been used to measure the ultrasound backscatter at 1 MHz from fish. The system consists of a Reson TC3210 1 MHz single-element transducer, a dual-frequency, multi-beam Blueview P900–2250 sonar, and three Oregon ATC9K cameras. The Reson transducer is connected to an Olympus pulser-receiver monitored by a portable computer through a Picoscope 4226 PC oscilloscope. Ex-situ experiments were performed at the NorthSea Oceanarium in Hirtshals, Denmark. The positions, orientations, and lengths of fish were estimated by three dimensional image analysis, taking the measured acoustic distance into account, while species were identified manually. These experiments indicate that at 1 MHz the surface areas (also fins and tail) of the fish can give echoes that are much stronger (up to 3 times) than the swimbladder can, therefore important for identification of fish.