Acoustic assessment of salmon at sea for the purpose of run prediction

Investigations into the migratory habits of salmon have shown that population sampling in particular areas of the North Pacific can help to predict the spawning migration to Bristol Bay, Alaska, the succeeding year. This population indexing has been done with standard purse-seining gear operated at a fixed series of stations. Such indices of population size have proved useful to both the fishing industry and the management agencies in planning their respective operations. This paper describes an acoustic sampling system developed at the University of Washington which will be used to help index this salmon population.