The proposed guidelines provide an opportunity to perform comparative analyses and checks of results obtained during echometric surveys of fish and krill, and to establish a data bank of these surveys. The unification of echometric survey data is aimed at increasing the effectiveness of research on the quantitative assessment of biomass of organisms.

The guidelines contain a description of requirements for the preparation of reports of echometric surveys. An example is provided of the preparation of a report of a hydroacoustic survey performed as part of FIBEX by the Soviet research vessel Odyssey during the period from January to March 1981 in the Scotia Sea, on polygon VI.