ACOUSTIC SCATTERING BY FISH IN THE FORWARD DIRECTION

This article is a study of the scattering of sound by fish in the forw ard direction. It is shown that in contrast to the situation with back scattering, the fish body rather than the swimbladder is primarily res ponsible for forward-scattering at high frequencies. In addition, the forward-scattering function of fish has a simple structure compared wi th the backscattered signal. Since the shape of a fish body is relativ ely easy to obtain, models for which the fish body is the major target are expected to be superior to those based on the swimbladder. More e xperimental work on the forward-scatter of sound by fish would seem wo rth while. Comparisons are made with the acoustic backscattering by fi sh. (C) 1996 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea