THE PELFISH SURVEYS: OBJECTIVES AND DATA COLLECTION

From 1991 to 1995, twenty acoustic surveys took place in the Java Sea and the surrounding areas in the frame of the PELFISH Project, sponsored by European Union, Indonesia and France. Their aim was to study the distribution, abundance and behaviour of the pelagic fauna, especially on the fishing grounds of the seiners. It needed various operations as environmental measurements, echo-integration, TS measurements, school localization, light attraction and trawl samplings. The scientific equipment and its adjustment, as well as the procedures of data acquisition used, are summarized (acoustic and physical measurements, samplings). The spatial, diurnal and bathymetric distribution of the sampling show that the data collection can give an accurate information for the prospected area. About 500 environmental stations, 1,500 TS stations and 20,000 density measurements give matter to constitute the basic information of a Dat