Climate change has led to a significant increase in jellyfish populations globally, causing various problems. For power plants that use nearby seawater for cooling, the intrusion of jellyfish into intake systems can block the flow, leading to reduced output or even shutdowns. This issue is compounded by other small marine organisms like shrimp and salps, making it urgent to develop solutions to prevent their intrusion. This study addressed the problem using the BioSonics DT-X 120 kHz scientific fish finder to conduct preliminary tank experiments. We also deployed underwater acoustic and camera buoys around the intake of nuclear power plant, utilizing a bidirectional communication system between sea and land to collect data. Data collection took place from July 31, 2023 to August 1, 2023. While harmful organisms such as jellyfish and salps were not detected, we successfully gathered acoustic data on small fish measuring backscattering strength (SV). Analysis showed that fish schools were more prominent in the evening than during the day. The highest fish distribution was observed at 3:30 AM on July 31 with an SV of -44.8 dB while the lowest was at 12:30 PM on the same day with an SV of –63.4 dB. Additionally, a solar-powered system was used to enable real-time data acquisition from sea buoys with smooth communication between the land server and the offshore buoy located 1.8 km away. This research developed an acoustic-based monitoring system for detecting harmful organisms around the intake and provided foundational data for preventing marine organism intrusion and planning effective measures.
In this study, the seasonal distribution was surveyed using acoustic in the coastal waters around nuclear power plants. Acoustic surveys were conducted in June, September, December 2022, and March 2023 in the coastal waters of Uljin-gun. According to the results of this study, zooplankton were distributed at the depths from 0 m to 50 m in the waters around nuclear power plants. Zooplankton appeared in summer (June), autumn (September), and spring (March). In the survey area, fish were distributed at the depths from 25 m to 190 m, appearing in the summer (June), autumn (September), winter (December) and spring (March). The SV of zooplankton appearing in the survey area ranged from -98.0 dB to -78.0 dB, and it exhibited a one-class in the frequency distribution of SV. The SV of fish appearing in the survey area ranged from -36.0 dB to -35.0 dB and -98.0 dB to -53.0 dB, and it exhibited two-class in the frequency distribution of SV.
This study developed and evaluated a load cell-based automatic weighing system for the automated harvesting of laver (Porphyra tenera) in seaweed aquaculture. The current manual harvesting process was compared with the load cell-based automated system, and quantitative measurements of time, distance, and weight were conducted. The results demonstrated that the load cell-based system reduced the unloading time and increased the throughput compared to the manual method. In addition, statistical analysis confirmed that there was no significant difference from the mean in the weight measurement obtained using the load cell-based system. Based on these findings, the load cell-based automatic weighing system holds potential for efficient production and transactions in laver cultivation, contributing to cost reduction and improving the quality of life for aquaculture workers.
A telesounder is a device that can monitor the appearance of fish in the sea on land and store fish detection data. This study was conducted to monitor the appearance of fish resources in coastal or near seas by using LTE communication for data transmission of the telesounder. The purpose of this study was to develop a prototype telesounder that can monitor the appearance of fish groups in the waters about 50 km away from the coast and store fish detection data. In this study, the prototype telesounder including a fish finder, communication device and battery for stable operation at sea was developed. The stability of telesounder buoy, data transmission/reception and expected use time were investigated. The expected use time of the telesounder using LTE communication with a lithium battery (12 V, 120 Ah) was about 274 hours under the conditions of 10 minutes off and 10 minutes on, about 520 hours under the conditions of 30 minutes off and 10 minutes on, and about 142 hours under continuous conditions. As a result of the sea test, it was found that the telesounder can be used in the sea area moved about 34 km from the land and the telesounder buoy was evaluated to have secured basic stability (buoyancy balance, waterproof, antenna strength, etc.) for operation in a marine environment.
As a method to understand the ecological habits around the artificial reef, various reports such as fishing gear survey, diving, sound survey, underwater CCTV and camera, etc. are reported. Among them, the sound survey method is carried out by installing an acoustic system on the ship and can be investigated regardless of the marine environment such as time constraints and turbidity. Such method, however, takes a lot of manpower and time as the ship travels at a constant speed. Investigations around artificial reefs are being conducted in an artificial way, and a lot of time and labor are consumed as such. Maritime buoys have been operated for various purposes such as route signs, weather observation, marine environment monitoring and defense monitoring for navigation safety in the past, but studies on monitoring systems for ecological habits and distribution of fish using marine buoys are remarkably insufficient. Therefore, this study aims to develop a system that allows users to directly monitor fish group detector data by estimating the distribution of fish groups around artificial reefs and using wireless communication at sea. In order to confirm the suitability of the maritime buoy used in this study, it was operated to compare data using LTE-equipped buoys capable of wireless communication and a data logger-type system buoy. Data transmission of buoys capable of LTE communication was carried out in a 10-minute ON, 10-minute OFF method due to the limitation of the power supply capacity, and data of the data logger-type buoy received full data. We compared and analyzed the data received from the two fish detectors. It is expected that real-time monitoring of the wireless buoy detection device using LTE will be possible through future research.
Density and sound speed contrasts (g and h , respectively), and swimming angle were measured for sandfish (Arctoscopus japonicus) without swimbladder. The density contrast was measured by the volume displacement method while the sound speed contrast was measured by the acoustic measurements of travel time (time-of-flight method). The swimming angle was measured by dividing it into daytime, nighttime, daytime feeding and nighttime feeding. The g was 1.001 to 1.067 with an average (± standard deviation) of 1.032 (± 0.017), and the h was 1.007 to 1.022 with an average (± standard deviation) of 1.015 (± 0.003). The swimming angles (mean ± standard deviation) were 16.8 ± 10.3° during the daytime, 1.9 ± 12.3° during the nighttime, 30.2 ± 12.6° in the daytime feeding and 35.0 ± 13.2° in the nighttime feeding. These results will provide important parameters input to calculate theoretical scattering models for estimating the acoustic target strength of sandfish.
One of the problems with abalone farms is that they need to be checked frequently after feeding them or visited once or twice a day and that the amount of food intake constantly fluctuates due to changes in water temperature around the farm and typhoons. In addition, the condition of abalone is not constant as it is divided into places that eat well and do not eat well according to its location. In order to solve this problem, there is a method of measuring the amount of food intake by using a load cell that can measure even the smallest weight in an abalone farm. Through this study, we implemented a system capable of measuring the amount of abalone feed required for systematic management of abalone farms and real-time monitoring using mobile and client PCs.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the improvement effect of biomarkers through the supply of natural diet in the juvenile hybrid abalone (Haliotis discus discus♀*H. madaka♂). For the study, the shell length of about 17 mm and the total weight of 0.83 g were used. The feeding conditions were set as the natural diet group (dried laver) and the formulated diet group, and the experiment duration was 16 weeks. The survival rate was about 14% higher in the natural diet group than the formulated diet group, and growth was also faster in the natural diet group. Shell malformation rate was lower in the natural diet group (7.5%) than the formulated diet group (21.5%). In the biochemical composition, except for carbohydrates, both experimental groups showed similar values. The degeneration of epithelial cells in the hepatopancreatic tubule was lower in the natural diet group than the formulated diet group, and the activity of basophilic cell was higher in the natural diet group. These results indicate that it is worth considering the supply of natural diet for the breeding of juvenile hybrid abalone and the improvement of the quality of the formulated diet (H. discus discus♀*H. madaka♂).
In order to collect basic information of response behavior of red seabream (Pagrus major) during pilling, works for constructing wind power station in Byeonsan Peninsular, Korea were investigated. Four cultured red seabream CRB1 to CRB4 [total length (TL): 27.1 ± 1.0 cm; body weight: 359 ± 30 g] were tagged with an acoustic tag and used in experiment. CRB1 and CRB2 to CBR4 were released on the sea surface at same time around the constructing site of the wind power plant on September 22, 2017 and July 18, 2018, respectively. The tracking of the CRB1 to CRB2 and CRB3 to CRB4 were conducted for two hours, approximately, using VR100 receiver including a directional hydrophone and VR2W receivers array consisted of 19 presence/absence receivers (VR2W receivers), respectively. The underwater noise level before (no pile driving works) and during pile driving works was measured 116.0-118.0 dB (re 1Pa) and a maximum of 160 dB (re 1Pa), respectively. CRB1 moved about 6.0 km with average swimming speed of 80.2 ± 20.5 cm/s for 2.1 hours without pile driving work. The average water depth of the sea bed on the route of CRB1 was 9.1 ± 0.4 m. CRB2 moved about 7.3 km with the average swimming speed of 96.8 ± 27.1 cm/s for 2.1 hours with pile driving work. The water depth of the sea bed on the route of CRB2 was 11.9 ± 0.6 m. At results of the Rayleigh’s z-test two fishes CRB1 and CRB2 showed significant directionality in the movement (p < 0.01). Movement mean angles of CRB1 and CRB2 were 92.7 and 251.8°, respectively. CRB2, CRB3 and CRB4 exhibited the escaping behavioral response from the noise of source during the pile driving work. The swimming speed of the CRB2 exposed on the heavy underwater noise stimuli due to the pile driving work was 1.21 times faster than that of the CRB1 exposed on the ambient underwater
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of underwater noise caused by pile driving during marine construction on fish. In this study, the three gray rockfish were released about 1 km away from the construction site of wind power generation on July 18, 2018 and traced using two acoustic telemetry techniques. The behavior of the fish was analyzed by calculating the moving distance, swimming speed and direction of the gray rockfish. In the results of the acoustic tracking using the ship, the rockfish moved about 2.11 km for about two hours at a speed of 0.28 ± 0.14 m/s (0.94 TL/s). The bottom depth of the trajectory of the rockfish was 1.0 ± 0.6 m on average. There was a significant directionality in swimming direction of the gray rockfish, and there was no significant correlation between the swimming direction and tidal current direction. Moving distance during 5 minutes (5MD) during pile driving and finishing operations between rock surface and bedrock were 0.94-0.96 times (76.0-77.0 m) and 1.81-2.73 times (146.0-219.5 m), respectively, compared with no pile driving. This study is expected to be used as a basic data of fish behavior research on underwater noise.
Seafood is attracting attention as a future food industry. In recent years, the demand for fishery equipment of mechanization, automation, and unmanned was increased due to the environment affected by seafood processing, stricter regulations on safety, decline and aging of fishery worker. Ark shell (Scapharca subcrenata) was being produced in many steps in the production process. The process has been made such as collection–landing–washing–first sort (goods/non-goods)–transports– second sort (size). It was undergone first and second steps by delivering to the consumer. Here, the first step is to sort goods to collection and the second step is to sort by size. The fishery workers need ten people in first step and six people in second step. The workload of one hour per kg is 4,247 kg/h in first step and 2,213 kg/h in second step. In addition, the goods ratio by work process was 79% in first step and 98% in the second step. In this process, a lot of fishery worker and working time is needed. Therefore, this study developed elemental techniques for an automated size sorting system considering the working process problem, time and situation for washing and sorting of ark shell.
The species composition and variation in abundance of fishery resources near Oenarodo, Go-heung Peninsula, Korea, were investigated by gill net, trap net, and longline in May, July, and October 2015 and 2016. During the study period, the total catch included 14 species in the gill net, 11 species in the trap net, and 4 species in the longline. The dominant species were Portunus trituberculatus and Raja pulchrain the gill net, Charybdis japonicaand and Octopus vulgarisin in the trap net, and Muraenesox cinereusin in the longline. The Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) per individual and per weight in the gill net were similar in May and July of 2015 and 2016. In October 2015, the CPUE per individual was 2.1 ind./h and the CPUE per weight was 505 g/h higher than the results in 2016, but there was no significant difference in the total CPUE between 2015 and 2016. In the trap net, the CPUE per weight was similar in both 2015 and 2016, but the CPUE per individual was 2.7 ind./h higher in October 2015 than in October 2016 and the total CPUE was not significantly different from 2015 to 2016. The CPUE per individual and weight in the longline were significantly higher in July and October 2015 than in the same months of 2016, but the total CPUE in 2015 and 2016 did not show a significant difference.
Changes in target strength (TS) values of sandfish when sandfish was alive and dead were investigated using ex-situ at120 kHz. TS values measured by tilt angles with ‑50∼+50 degrees showed ranges from ‑71.0 to ‑53.3 dB for live sandfish, ‑63.1~‑46.3 dB for thawed sandfish, and ‑70.0~‑50.4 dB after 24 hours from thawed, respectively. It was shown that while TS values were similar between the case of live and the case of after 24 hours from thawed, mean TS values were higher by approximately 5 dB in the case of immediate thawed sandfish. It was also seen that TS values were similar between the case of thawed sandfish and the case of after 21 hours from live. The results showed that TS values of live sandfish were different from those of frozen sandfish. It implies that when estimating TS of frozen fish, the influx of bubbles and changes of body should be considered.
This study was focused on acoustic scattering characteristics of jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) at frequency 38, 70, and 120 kHz by Kirchhoff-ray mode (KRM) model. The body length (BL) of 16 individuals ranged in 12.2~22.0 cm (mean±S.D.: 17.8±3.2 cm) and the swimbladder length ranged in 4.2~8.6 cm (mean±S.D.: 6.6±1.6 cm) and the swimbladder cross section ranged in 1.7~6.6 cm2 (mean±S.D.: 3.8±1.6 cm2). This result shows that results correlate well between the BL and the length and cross section of swimbladder. The swimbladder angle ranged in 7~12°and the maximum TS values ranged in –16~–5°at tilt angle. The averaged TS-to-BL relationship were TS38kHz=20log10BL-65.33 (R2=0.66), TS70kHz=20log10BL-65.90 (R2=0.67), and TS120kHz=20log10BL-66.65 (R2=0.65). These results can be used fundamental data in order to estimate distribution and biomass of jack mackerel by using hydro-acoustic method.
We aimed to assess the behavior characteristics of fish on an artificial reef using hydroacoustic techniques. The acoustical survey was conducted with a 200 kHz dual beam transducer while fishing on the stone combination reef of Uljin. A school of fish were detected on the artificial reef before sunset and floated on the artificial reef at 30 minutes after sunset. The density (Nautical Area Scattering Coefficient, NASC) of fish that floated on the artificial reef after sunset was about 600 m2/nmi2; similar observations (about 50 m2/nmi2 or less) were noted after 19:00 hours. Fish caught by fishing on the artificial reef were Sebastes schlegeli, Hexagrammos otakii, Sebastes thompsoni, and Conger myriaster. Resultantly, we demonstrated that hydroacoustic techniques are useful for detecting behavior characteristics of fish in the artificial reef. Such results can be used for basic data to estimate the install effect of the artificial reefs.