prEN 15910

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-junij-2009
.DNRYRVWYRGH1DYRGLOR]DRFHQMHYDQMHãWHYLOþQRVWLULE]PRELOQRKLGURDNXVWLþQR
PHWRGR
Water quality - Guidance on the estimation of fish abundance with mobile hydroacoustic
methods
Wasserbeschaffenheit - Aufnahme von Daten zur Fischpopulation mittels
hydroakustischer Verahren
Qualité de l'eau - Guide sur l'estimation de l'abondance des poissons par des méthodes
hydroacoustiques mobiles
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: prEN 15910
ICS:
13.060.70 Preiskava bioloških lastnosti Examination of biological
vode properties of water
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EUROPEAN STANDARD
DRAFT
NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
March 2009
ICS
English Version
Water quality - Guidance on the estimation of fish abundance
with mobile hydroacoustic methods
Qualité de l'eau -Echantillonnage de données de Wasserbeschaffenheit - Aufnahme von Daten zur
populations de poissons par hydroacoustique Fischpopulation mittels hydroakustischer Verahren
This draft European Standard is submitted to CEN members for enquiry. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 230.
If this draft becomes a European Standard, CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which
stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.
This draft European Standard was established by CEN in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language
made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN Management Centre has the
same status as the official versions.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are aware and to
provide supporting documentation.
Warning : This document is not a European Standard. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change without notice and
shall not be referred to as a European Standard.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
Management Centre: Avenue Marnix 17, B-1000 Brussels
© 2009 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. prEN 15910:2009: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
Foreword .3
Introduction .3
1 Scope .3
2 Normative references .4
3 Terms and definitions .4
4 Principle and field of application .4
5 Equipment .6
6 Survey design .8
7 Survey data acquisition . 12
8 Post-processing of acoustic data . 13
9 Results and reporting . 18
Annex A (informative) Common abbreviations used in this document . 27
Annex B (informative) Supplementary data . 28
Annex C (informative) Methods for estimates of fish abundance . 29
Annex D (informative) Interpretation of TS into fish length and weight . 30
Annex E (informative) Deconvolution procedure . 35
Annex F (informative) Determination of the Elementary Distance Sampling Unit (EDSU) . 37
Annex G (informative) EIFAC/CEN Acoustic Workshop . 38
Bibliography . 39

Foreword
This document (prEN 15910:2009) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 230 “Water analysis”, the
secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This document is currently submitted to the CEN Enquiry.
WARNING — Persons using this European Standard should be familiar with normal laboratory and fieldwork
practice. This standard does not purport to address all of the safety problems, if any, associated with its
use. It is the responsibility of the user to establish appropriate safety and health practices and to ensure
compliance with any national regulatory conditions.
IMPORTANT – It is absolutely essential that tests conducted according to this European Standard be carried
out by suitably trained staff.
Introduction
This is one of several European Standards developed for the evaluation of species composition, abundance and age
structure of fish in rivers, lakes and transitional waters. The following standards have already been published:
EN 14011, Water quality — Sampling of fish with electricity
EN 14757, Water quality — Sampling of fish with multi-mesh gill nets
EN 14962, Water quality — Guidance on the scope and selection of fish sampling methods
Common abbreviations that are used in this document are compiled and explained in Annex A.
The initial draft of this document was constructed by an international group of experts during an ad hoc joint
EIFAC/CEN workshop (see Annex G).
1 Scope
This European Standard describes a standardised method for data sampling and procedures for data evaluation of
fish populations in large rivers, lakes and reservoirs, using hydroacoustic equipment deployed on mobile platforms
(boats and vessels).
This standard covers fish population abundance estimates of pelagic and profundal waters > 15 m mean depth with
the acoustic beam oriented vertically, and the inshore and surface waters of water bodies > 2 m depth with the beam
oriented horizontally. The size structure of fish populations can only be determined to a relatively low degree of
precision and accuracy, particularly from horizontally-deployed echosounders. As acoustic techniques are presently
unable to identify species directly, other direct fish catching methods should always be used in combination.
This standard provides recommendations and requirements on equipment, survey design, data acquisition, post-
processing of data and results and reporting. A selected literature with references in support of this standard is given
in the Bibliography.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated references,
only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
EN 14757, Water quality — Sampling of fish with multi-mesh gillnets
EN 14962, Water quality — Guidance on the scope and selection of fish sampling methods
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in EN 14962 apply.
4 Principle and field of application
Hydroacoustic (or echosounding) technologies are effective and efficient methods for sampling fish in the water
column [37]. Fisheries acoustics methods are analogous to remote sensing techniques and advantageous to other
sampling methods as nearly the entire water column can be sampled quickly and non-destructively, areal coverage
is continuous, data resolution is on the order of tenths of metres, and data can be post-processed in a variety of
ways. However, other methods and procedures are required for determination of species identity and age structure.
Acoustics is used to gather information remotely by transmitting a pulsed beam of sound energy into a water body
and subsequently detecting and analysing the returning echoes. Systems are available with single-, dual-, split- and
multi-beams, although the latter two types have now superseded the other two systems. Acoustic systems are
usually deployed from a moving boat in large water bodies. A computer is required for control of the echo sounder in
the field and for the data processing.
This standard covers acoustic sampling of deep lakes, reservoirs, shallow lakes and wide lowland rivers. The pelagic
and profundal waters of lakes > 15 m depth are surveyed with the acoustic beam oriented in the vertical axis, whilst
inshore and surface waters of lakes and lowland rivers > 2 m depth are surveyed with the beam oriented horizontally
[20], [24]. Water bodies of all trophic levels can be sampled acoustically and a wide range of fish communities and
targets, ranging from young of the year to large mature fish can be detected and quantified (Table 1).
Mobile acoustic surveys provide several layers of information; from relatively simple presence / absence studies of
target species, to spatial (or temporal) distributions of individuals or groups, to fully quantitative density and (when
combined with other sampling techniques) system-wide biomass estimates.
Correctly obtained acoustic sampling data are directly related to population density. The strategy shall be to sample
a defined area or volume of lake or river using appropriate equipment (Clause 5), data collection (Clause 7) and data
processing procedures (Clause 8), presenting the results in a standard reporting format (Clause 9) to provide
estimates of fish abundance. Abundance in this context can be either a relative or an absolute measure of
assessment based on a single survey of a known area or volume of water.

Table 1 — Suitability of hydroacoustic sampling techniques for inland water bodies and fish communities
Application Objectives Water Types Target Species and Life Stages Limitations
a
Vertical Beaming Fish population abundance estimates Fish in pelagic and profundal waters Poor coverage of surface and littoral waters
Lake Categorie 1
Fish population size structure YOY to adult Must be used in conjunction with direct capture methods for species
b
Lake Categorie 3
composition and age structure
a
Horizontal Beaming Fish population abundance estimates Lake Categorie 1 Fish in littoral and surface waters Poor coverage of pelagic and profundal waters
b
Fish population size structure Lake Categorie 3 YOY to adult Vulnerable to interference from macrophytes and entrained air
c
Low confidence in size-structure from lakes and slow-flowing rivers
River Categorie 3
Must be used in conjunction with direct capture methods for species
d
River Categorie 4
composition
e
River Categorie 5
a
Combined Vertical Fish population abundance estimates Lake Categorie 1 Fish in pelagic, profundal, littoral and Horizontal beaming vulnerable to interference from macrophytes and
and Horizontal surface waters entrained air
b
Fish population size structure Lake Categorie 3
Beaming
YOY to adult Low confidence in size-structure from horizontal beaming
Must be used in conjunction with direct capture methods for species
composition
Categories of lakes and rivers see EN 14962:
a
With a pelagic or profundal zone, area < 0,5 km
b
With a pelagic and profundal zone, Area > 0,5 km
c
Width < 30 m, maximum depth > 2 m
d
Width 30 m to 100 m, maximum depth > 2 m
e
Width > 100 m maximum depth > 2 m
5 Equipment
Although current acoustic equipment is accurate and reliable, it must be used correctly with a fundamental
understanding of factors that can affect its performance. Sources of systematic error or bias in acoustic survey
results include calibration errors, hydrographic conditions, diel fish behaviour and migration [37]. Other practical
limitations are sources of unwanted echoes (reverberation), such as plankton, debris, submerged macrophytes and
entrained air bubbles.
5.1 System performance
Recommended equipment specifications are given below as minimum and optimum requirements:
Minimum:
Whilst it is accepted that useful information may be obtained from a wide variety of echosounder types, the minimum
requirement for a scientific survey is that a “Scientific” sounder with the following characteristics be used:
 quantitative fisheries echosounder (calibrated) and operating at an appropriate frequency for the waterbody and
target fish species, probably between 38 kHz and 1,8 MHz [34];
 enables data storage of calibrated data for reprocessing;
 enables data processing in order to generate abundance and size distribution outputs.
Optimum:
Because of their inherent and obvious advantages, it is recommended that scientific split or multi-beam sounders be
used if possible.
5.2 Calibration
5.2.1 General
Calibrations are conducted to ensure that the ec
...