Support vector machine under uncertainty: An application for hydroacoustic classification of fish-schools in Chile

In this work we apply multi-class support vector machines (SVMs) and a multi-class stochastic SVM formulation to the classification of fish schools of three species: anchovy, common sardine, and Jack Mackerel, and we compare their performance. The data used come from acoustic measurements in southern-central Chile. These classifications were carried out by using a diver set of descriptors including morphology, bathymetry, energy, and space positions. In both type of formulations, the deterministic and the stochastic one, the strategy used to classify multi-class SVM consists in employing the criterion one-species-against-the-Rest. We thus provide an empirical way to adjust the parameters involved in the stochastic classifiers with the aim of improving its performance. When this procedure is applied to the classification of fish schools we obtain a classifier with a better performance than the deterministic classifier.