Integrating hydroacoustic and telemetric surveys to estimate fish abundance: a new approach to an old problem

Abstract

Population abundance is a critical metric in fisheries and conservation, but it is very difficult to measure accurately. Existing estimation methods present significant challenges: mark–recapture methods are time- and labour-intensive, and hydroacoustic echo counting methods face issues with target identity and the habitat types where they can be effectively applied. We present a new methodology for abundance estimation that can improve the reliability of echo counting methods. Split beam hydroacoustic survey data are integrated with telemetry data from fish bearing acoustic transponder tags. These tags are counted by a spatially and temporally concurrent multibeam acoustic survey to produce mark–recapture abundance estimates. We assessed this approach on four wild lake trout populations, ranging in abundance from ∼200 to ∼3000 adults. Our abundance estimates were consistent with those derived from conventional Schnabel and Jolly–Seber mark–recapture studies. We show that the precision achievable with this method in 1 year of field work rivals that provided by long-term (>10 years) continuous mark–recapture studies. We also discuss other ecological questions that could be addressed with this approach.