Assessment and monitoring of marine biodiversity, including fish populations, is essential for evidence-based conservation management of coastal marine resources. The effectiveness of monitoring techniques for stock assessment varies with sea conditions. In dynamic marine environments with high turbidity, such as those found in estuaries, mangroves, coastal straits, fjords, and bays, traditional assessment methods include the use of destructive techniques such as trawling. Hydroacoustic sampling techniques overcome such restrictions, equipment such as echosounders have commonly been used for biodiversity assessments including fish community structure, biomass, behaviour, and dynamics studies. However, hydroacoustic methods have been shown to be less reliable for species identification.

The high frequency Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar (ARIS) is widely used for underwater object detection and imaging. Our study investigated the suitability of ARIS 3000 for the species identification of North-East Atlantic marine species using experimental aquarium studies, field surveys and multi investigator assessments. Aquaria results showed that 82 % of species were detected by observers, of which five were identified correctly identified consistently. The remaining four species were identified correctly <67 % of the time. During field surveys, a 150 % higher confidence in identification was given to more morphologically distinct groups such as elasmobranchs.

Whilst our results highlight the suitability of the ARIS for accurate and repeatable identification of some of the model species used in this study, we have also shown that factors such as size and morphological traits limit the accuracy of identification for all species. We suggest that monitoring techniques combine the use of ARIS sonars alongside other sampling tools for assessing motile faunal communities.

评估和监测海洋生物多样性，包括鱼类种群，对于沿海海洋资源的循证保护管理至关重要。用于种群评估的监测技术的有效性因海况而异。在具有高浊度的动态海洋环境中，例如在河口、红树林、沿海海峡、峡湾和海湾中发现的环境，传统的评估方法包括使用拖网捕鱼等破坏性技术。水声采样技术克服了这些限制，回声测深仪等设备通常用于生物多样性评估，包括鱼类群落结构、生物量、行为和动力学研究。然而，水声方法已被证明不太可靠的物种识别。

高频自适应分辨率成像声纳（ARIS）广泛用于水下物体检测和成像。我们的研究使用实验性水族馆研究、实地调查和多位调查员评估，调查了 ARIS 3000 对东北大西洋海洋物种的物种鉴定的适用性。Aquaria 结果显示，82% 的物种被观察者检测到，其中 5 个被正确识别并一致识别。其余四种物种的正确识别率<67%。在实地调查期间，对形态学上更不同的群体（例如弹鳃类）的识别置信度提高了 150%。

虽然我们的结果强调了 ARIS 对本研究中使用的一些模型物种的准确和可重复识别的适用性，但我们还表明，大小和形态特征等因素限制了所有物种识别的准确性。我们建议监测技术结合使用 ARIS 声纳和其他采样工具来评估活动动物群落。