Distribution and abundance of sprat in the North Sea in winter 1979-1980 determined by acoustic methods.

Abstract

To estimate the size of the North Sea sprat stock acoustically two cruises were carried out in November 1979-January 1980. The method is described and the size of the sprat stock was estimated to about 1 million tons. This is probably an underestimate due to the fact that some of the sprat stock were distributed close to the bottom orsea surface and therefore out of range of the acoustic equipment, and also due to the fact that the applied average target strength possibly is too high.