Rather-high-frequency sound scattering by swimbladdered fish

Abstract

A new model describes acoustic scattering by swimbladdered fish of lengths from at least 8 to 36 wavelengths. It represents a fish by an ideal pressure-release surface having the exact size and shape as the swimbladder. The backscattering cross section, or target strength, is computed by means of the Kirchhoff approximation. To test the model, predictions of target strengths based on swimbladder morphometries of 15 gadoids of lengths from 31.5 to 44.5 cm are compared with conventional target strength measurements on the same, surface-adapted fish, anesthetized before acoustic measurement, and shock-frozen immediately afterwards. Details are given of the swimbladder morphometry. In essence, this consists of slicing the frozen fish with a microtome, photographing the exposed swimbladder cross sections, digitizing the contours, and triangulating the surface between pairs of contours on adjacent, parallel planes. Theory and experiment are compared through the dorsal and ventral aspect target strength functions, their averages, and simulated probability density functions.