Potential for broadband acoustics to improve stock assessment surveys of midwater fishes

Acoustic-trawl surveys rely on a combination of backscatter measured with echosounders and species composition data from trawls to apportion the backscatter to different species and size classes. Narrowband echosounders have been widely used in this context for decades. Multi-frequency analysis of narrowband echosounder data has been shown to be effective for discriminating between diverse taxa (e.g., euphausiids vs. swimbladdered fishes) but...