Simulation of fish reaction against cage net with an individual fish behaviour model

Abstract

Simulation technique for the fish behavior was applied to estimate fish school movement in the cage net.Individual-based fish behavior model (Huth and Wessel, 1991) was evaluated in a free area to understand the characteristics for the model, and the movement in the cage net was simulated by defining the fish reaction against the displacement of cage net. As a result, the distance to the net was not considerably changed and the space among fishes in cage net was slightly decreased by reducing the net space.Swimming area was, however, significantly affected by changing the net space and the relationship between swimming area and net displacement was theoretically estimated as y〓-0.21x＋1.02 (R 2 〓0.96). these results leads the conclusion that individual-based model was appropriated to describe the fish school reaction in the cage net and be able to use for evaluating the influence on cultured fish.