Backscattering measurements of 14 live individual Antarctic krill (Euphausia superb a) were made at a frequency of 120 kHz in a chilled insulated tank at the Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, CA. Individual animals were suspended in front of the transducers, were only loosely constrained, had substantial freedom to move, and showed more or less random orientation. One thousand echoes were collected per animal. Orientation data were recorded on video. The acoustic data were analyzed and target strengths determined from each echo. A method was developed for estimating the three-dimensional orientation of the krill based on the video images and was applied to five of them, giving their target strengths as functions of orientation. Scattering models based on a simplified distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) method were developed for five animals and compared with the measurements.
Both measured and modeled scattering patterns showed that 120 kHz acoustic scattering levels are highly dependent on animal orientation. Use of these scattering patterns with orientation data from shipboard studies of E. superba gave mean scattering levels approximately 12 dB lower than peak levels. These results underscore the need for better in situ behavioral data to properly interpret acoustic survey results. A generic E. superb a DWBA scattering model is proposed that is scalable by animal length. With good orientation information, this model could significantly improve the precision and accuracy of krill acoustic surveys.