Session on Acoustic seabed classification on ICES ASC September 2004

The ICES Annual Science Conference 22nd to 25th September 2004 will have a special session entitled "Acoustic Seabed Classification - Applications in Fisheries Science and Ecosystem Studies", chaired by Rudy Kloser, Australia and Jon Side, UK. Abstracts should be submitted by 3 May 2004.

The aim of this theme session is to bring together researchers where acoustic systems have been used to classify and map the seabed for applications in fisheries and ecosystem studies. The philosophy of the session will focus on how acoustic systems are used in combination with other sampling devices to characterise the seafloor at a variety of scales.

There are now a number of remote acoustic monitoring systems available for the classification of the seabed. These include commercial systems ranging from low cost single beam normal incident echosounders to high cost multi-beam swath mappers, as well as more complex approaches under development. All these systems allow us to begin to map the seabed in a quasi- synoptic and continuous fashion. Previous mapping and classification has substantially been geologically based using point sampling with grabs and corers. There is now a growing interest in developing marine habitat classifications that are biologically relevant (eg. marine bioregionalisation, assessing essential fisheries habitat, marine protected areas and environmental monitoring). The degree to which the hydro-acoustics remote sensing survey approach can be applied to these needs is under constant review.

The organisers would be particularly interested in presentations on:

  • Case studies of marine habitat mapping and classification

  • Incorporation of ground-truthing data and integration with other technologies eg video, towed and stationary physical samplers.

  • Analytical and statistical approaches to developing classifications and mapping these.

  • Problems of spatial and temporal scale: mapping deepwater seascape at 100 km scale or mapping a small shallow reef at 1-10 m scale?

  • Limitations of the acoustic remote sensed tool for biological surrogacy
    (eg biodiversity).