Centre for Marine Science and Technology

Miles Parsons is a PhD student with CMST, studying active and passive acoustic techniques to study fish aggregations.

EMAIL: M.Parsons
Telephone: +61 8 9266 7225

CAPABILITY STATEMENT

NAME: Miles Parsons
ENROLLED DEGREE: PhD

QUALIFICATIONS:

RESEARCH BACKGROUND/INTERESTS:

SUPERVISORS:

RESEARCH PROJECT:

Acoustic Techniques to Study Fish Aggregations.

Coastal waters of Western Australia and their associated habitats are home to many species of demersal fish that migrate to form short-lived aggregations in order to spawn.  These spawning aggregations form at the same sites over successive, predictable spawning seasons.  Due to the exploitation of demersal finfish spawning aggregations within the West Coast Bio-region, recent attention has been paid to using passive and active acoustic techniques for assessments of these aggregations to help evaluate their sustainability. 

As pressures on fish stock levels increase, so does the necessity for accurate quantification of abundance.  Underwater acoustics offers a powerful approach for assessing the abundance, distribution and ecological importance of marine life in aquatic ecosystems, and as such the retrieval and analysis of marine acoustic backscatter data using single-beam echo-sounders has become a comparatively well established tool in the assessment of fish stock levels.  More recently the development of multi-beam swath mapping techniques to acquire data from within the whole water column has extended its use to fisheries related surveys.  This method is still in its infancy and requires further research.  A less utilized method is the localisation and quantification of fish numbers by analysis of recorded spawning vocalisations.

The species of fish that form spawning aggregations along the WA coastline display different acoustic and behavioural characteristics.  This is pertinent to the type of technique required in obtaining data relevant to stock assessment.  The proposed study will investigate established and developing techniques used in biomass estimation, for their precision in assessing aggregations of differing fish species.  In particular, samson fish (Seriola hippos), mulloway (Argyrosomus hololepidotus), pink snapper (Pagrus auratus) and dhufish (Gaucosoma hebraicum) are targeted.  Field research will involve: acquiring single and multi-beam data from aggregations; logging recordings of spawning vocalisations; simultaneous ground truthing data using physical sampling; and establishing fish backscatter strengths in controlled situations.  Several sites along the Western Australian coast, where recurring spawning aggregations have been reported, will be targeted.    The ability to identify and measure targets using each method will be evaluated against ground truthing data and model predictions.  Resulting conclusions will be used to develop a suite of protocols to promote the accurate and cost effective measurement of biomass levels for particular aggregations with species-specific characteristics.

PUBLICATIONS

PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

 Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D. and Mackie, M. 2006, Spawning sounds of the mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus). Australasian Acoustical Society, conference proceedings, Christchurch, New Zealand, November 19th-22nd, 2006

 Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D. and Mackie, M. 2005, Preliminary analysis of single-beam acoustic data of fish spawning aggregations along the Western Australian coastline. Australian Acoustical Society, conference proceedings, Busselton, WA, November 9-11th.

 UNREVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

 Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D., Siwabessy, P.J. and Mackie, M., (2006), Evaluation of multi- and single-beam acoustic backscatter data collected from a samsonfish (Seriola hippos) spawning aggregation in Western Australia. 8th European Conference of Underwater Acoustics, Portugal, June 12th-15th, 2006.

Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D. and Mackie, M., Characterisation of a mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) spawning aggregation using passive acoustic techniques.  2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Underwater Acoustic Measurements: Technologies and Results, Crete, June, 2007

Parsons, M.J.G., Parnum, I.M., McCauley, R.D. and Mackie, M., Multi-beam visualisation of Samson Fish (Seriola hippos) aggregations and spawning habitats in Western Australia (invited paper). 2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Underwater Acoustic Measurements: Technologies and Results, Crete, June, 2007

PUBLISHED ABSTRACTS

 Parsons, M.J.G., Parnum, I.M., (2006), Developments in acoustic remote sensing of marine ecosystems. Australian Acoustical Society WA State Conference, Perth, August 22nd, 2006.

Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D., (2006), The use of acoustics to study fish aggregations: An update. Report of the Working Group on Fisheries Acoustics Science and Technology (WGFAST), International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Hobart, March 27th – 30th, 2006

WORK IN PROGRESS

Parsons, M.J.G., McCauley, R.D. and Mackie, M., Lewis, P., Management and monitoring of fish spawning aggregations within the west coast bio-region of Western Australia, Contributor Chapter 2 Acoustic Materials and Methods., & Chapter 4 Assessment of Techniques for Monitoring Fish Spawning Aggregations Project 2004/051

 


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