Fish recordings from NEPTUNE Canada

Abstract

NEPTUNE Canada is a regional-scale ocean observing system deployed off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Among the data streams broadcast live over the internet are video collected using black and white low-light camera and audio collected with Naxys hydrophone (5 - 3,000 Hz). These data allow for description of sound production by fishes in the vicinity of the system. Concurrent video and hydrophone data are available from the Barkley Canyon node (~900 m depth). While the hydrophone recordings were continuous, strobes for video are only turned on during short, irregular (~10 min) intervals. Approximately 30 h of concurrent video and audio recordings were analyzed. The most commonly seen fish was sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), and the most common fish-like sound was a broadband, short pulse that occurred on nearly half of the recordings. On approximately one-fifth of concurrent video and audio recordings both sablefish and fish-like pulsed sounds were detected. It may be possible to use these sounds to monitor sablefish abundance across the northeastern Pacific Ocean. NEPTUNE Canada Data Archive, http://www.neptunecanada.ca, hydrophone and video data from May, June, August, and December 2010 and January and February 2011, Oceans Networks Canada, University of Victoria, Canada. Downloaded 2012.