This paper provides an overview of the progress Ifremer has made recently in
fisheries acoustics and the study of small pelagic fish by: i) pushing
observation frontiers using a range of platforms including an autonomous
underwater vehicle, AUV, ii) developing measuring instruments and methods
and iii) studying fish distributions. Presently, information from several
frequencies of single-beam echosounders is routinely collected together with
data from the ME70 multibeam echosounder. For onboard data acquisition
control the HERMES software was developed. The new MOVIES 3D software
includes modules for simultaneous realistic 3D visualisation and
post-processing such as bottom detection, school extraction and calculation
of descriptors and integration of all acoustic data. Several data analysis
methods are being developed and some initial results are presented. Finally,
results on the spatial distribution of small pelagic fish schools in the Bay
of Biscay illustrate the role that acoustics can play, and are already
playing, in the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries.