Chasing the light: Positive bias in camera-based surveys of groundfish examined as risk-foraging trade-offs

Unbiased survey data are important for understanding the effects of fisheries and environmental change on fish communities. We applied predation risk and life history theories to examine how parallel laser beams, which provide a scale for estimating transect width and the sizes of fish and habitat features, might bias groundfish counts during visual surveys conducted with a towed video camera. The laser beams project forward as “dots” onto the...