OCD200201: 38kHz Acoustic Data from Blue Grenadier Fishing, Tasmania 2002

Tasmanian west coast 38kHz Simrad ES60 acoustic data collected during commercial fishing of spawning blue grenadier in 2002. The data was gathered by the factory freezer vessel FV Ocean Dawn as part of an FRDC project and is held by the CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group in Hobart. Complementary datasets were collected by vessels FV Aoraki and FV Petersen during the same season.

Use Cases

• Analyze fish spawning aggregation behavior based on 38kHz acoustic backscatter data.
• Calibrate or validate acoustic equipment models using the Simrad ES60 history files.
• Study the spatial distribution of blue grenadier off the Tasmanian west coast based on GPS data embedded in the files.
• Correlate acoustic observations with biological catch data (species, length, weight) collected by an AFMA observer.

Strengths

• Data is part of a coordinated FRDC project involving three factory freezer vessels, suggesting a systematic collection effort.
• Includes complementary biological and trawl log data from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) for potential cross-validation.
• Acoustic data is held by the authoritative CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset consists of ES60 history files only, with no cruise track or digitised echogram data available.

Provenance

Source

CSIRO Marine Science Acoustic Group (Hobart), via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Collected using a 38kHz Simrad ES60 echosounder during commercial fishing operations.

Time Range

2002 (specific cruise dates are a subset of the voyage; exact start/end dates are not known).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 13:31:59.034187; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Tasmanian west coast.