New approaches in the understanding of schooling fish: combining individual based models with direct observations

In marine ecosystems populations of schooling fish creates an extra challenge for fisheries, management and marine science. Schooling fish are distributed in schools of different sizes, of different shape and with different dynamics, depending on the ind ividual motivation of the fish and ecological conditions. Schooling fish can be conceptualized as decentralized leaderless societies, where the local interactions between numerous fish inside the school, is the mechanism creating structure and pattern on the group level. Individual based models allow us to simulate the decisions and actions performed by each fish, and study the behavioural patterns emerging through a simulation. Such models are ideal tools when investigating theories about how individual decisions inside a school interact. We propose a project, where we will improve existing models of schooling fish creating a new model framework, functioning as a platform for the testing of various hypothesis about how individual motivations and decisio ns creates the various school patterns observed in situ. We will use high-quality direct observations from existing underwater film material of various schooling species in various ecological situations, to categorize types of schooling based on individua l state and ecological context. Various theories and hypothesis about how individual fish interact will be implemented in the model framework and the resulting group behaviour will be quantified and evaluated against the direct observations. This kind of framework can be used to predict the type of school patterns to be expected in a specific situation. New concepts of schooling fish, which is based on the understanding of how individual states influence school patterns will be developed. We are aiming t owards operational concepts applicable in the future of marine science.