Echoview

Echoview was pleased to catch up with acoustic scientist and Echoview user Dr Alina Wieczorek and social scientist/PhD candidate Amanda Schadeberg on their recent article “How do scientists use sound to count fish in the deep sea?”, published in Frontiers for Young Minds in December 2021.

The article makes fisheries acoustics interesting and digestible to the next generation by explaining simply how acoustic technologies allow us to “see” objects underwater. It then delves into how scientists assess fish stocks using acoustics, and how and why it is important for sustainable fishing.

The online feature is growing in popularity with its positive impacts stretching far and wide as the content captures the curious minds of kids globally. Not only can youngsters provide feedback and ask questions directly to the authors, but they are also being inspired to think about the importance of taking care of our oceans.

We were intrigued to find out more from Alina and Amanda on their ambitions for communicating the importance of counting fish, and sharing the knowledge from scientists to children.

Thank you for your time, Alina and Amanda!

Dr Alina M Wieczorek

What was your motivation for writing the article for Frontiers for Young Minds?

As an undergraduate student of marine science and a non-native speaker I used to struggle focussing when reading scientific textbooks and articles and sometimes still do. Often this has to do with the over-complicated language we researchers use and our convoluted detailed way of explaining sometimes quite straightforward things. Interestingly enough, once I sat on the other side of the table and started to write about my own research, I myself started to write in a way that is hard to follow for anyone not working in the same or similar field. That's of course quite normal because most of the time we do actually need to provide a lot of detailed information to our peers about our studies.

However, I also started to notice that I was struggling to explain to my friends and family what my work is about and why it is so important. While for me this felt quite alienating the much bigger issue here is that we are not able to inform people outside our field and especially kids about our findings which consequently makes them quite meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

Luckily, this is now changing and we live in a time where scientists are encouraged to engage with stakeholders and the public and there is a lot more training for us to learn how to do that. The Frontiers for Young Minds journal is a perfect example for this.

Especially issues like overfishing, climate change and ocean pollution are important future challenges which today's kids will have to face. For that reason, I was quite keen to explain to them how we assess fish stocks using acoustics and how and why it is important to run a sustainable fishery while also highlighting some of the "pitfalls" and issues we encounter.

How are kids responding/reacting to it?

It was extremely helpful and entertaining to read the reviews of the kids. They quickly highlighted all the parts which were too complicated and sometimes actually not important for the overall story. The article was aimed at kids a little older than those who reviewed our article and I was fascinated that even those younger kids were able to follow it seemingly without a problem. This showed me how much we sometimes underestimate the capability of kids in learning about something new.

One other thing I became aware of was all the jargon we use in the scientific world. Sometimes it was a real struggle to find more kid-friendly words or ways of explaining something. Writing this article together with Amanda has been so helpful here as we could exchange on this and she always had great ideas which in the end made it possible to describe quite complex science in a kid-friendly way. What I loved was the humour and funny and direct comments of the kids. I realised that I miss this a lot in my everyday work life and even though I know that the research we do is important and often around serious issues, I do think that we should bring a bit of that back into our lives.

What do you think acoustic scientists should focus on over the next few years that will help the next generation of scientists?

There are many new instruments available to us now but there is also a real shift in the way we analyse acoustic data through automated processes for instance. In order to utilise these technologies to answer important scientific questions we will need to collaborate with one another and people outside of our field more closely and make acoustic science more accessible to everyone and in particular the next generation.

What advice would you give for kids wishing to become a scientist?

Find a subject or research field that truly fascinates you and don't ever do anything because you think you should do it or have to do it. Becoming a scientist involves a lot of hard work and dedication and therefore can be tough at times so it is important to study something which really interests and fascinates you. Never be afraid to ask questions, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something and always focus on the solutions and not the problems.

PhD candidate Amanda Schadeberg

What was your motivation for writing the article for Frontiers for Young Minds?

I studied communication and social science at university, and now in my career I enjoy working closely with marine scientists to understand the social dimensions of ocean problems. I’m currently doing work about the mesopelagic zone, so aside from the joy of having the work reviewed by kids, one motivation for writing this article with Alina was to get a close understanding of the technology used in fisheries acoustics. There’s a saying that goes something like, “if you can’t explain something to a six-year-old, you don’t really understand it yourself” and this process was a wonderful demonstration of that principle!

How are kids responding/reacting to it? Do you have any statistics on number of times shared/read etc?

My favourite questions were from one of our “young reviewers" who was particularly curious about swim bladders. They asked, “Where does the air the fish use come from? How can fish use this air to go higher or lower?". To me it really proved that they’d understood the material and that it had sparked new scientific curiosity. In addition, the teachers we corresponded with remarked that many of the kids were taken by the figures – so I think this shows how important visual communication is, both for a general (and young) audience and within science itself.

What do you think acoustic scientists should focus on over the next few years that will help the next generation of scientists?

I am not an acoustic scientist so would not dare to answer that with too much authority, but from my perspective I would argue that fostering interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges should be an integral part of all science education and practice. The world is complex and interconnected, so science should be that way as well. Working with Alina on this article demonstrated to me how putting a fisheries acoustician and a social scientist together can produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. We will need more of that kind of collaboration to tackle the ocean challenges of the future.

What advice would you give for kids wishing to become a scientist?

There are many different ways to be a good scientist, but the two most important ingredients are curiosity and a notebook. What are you interested in? What do you like reading or doing for fun? How can you look at those things more closely to understand how they work? Then write down whatever you can find! Science is all about making good observations and communicating them to other people, so practice that whenever you can.

References:

Wieczorek, A., Schadeberg, A. and Reid, D. (2021). How do Scientists Use Sound to Count Fish in The Deep Sea? Frontiers for Young Minds. 9:598169. doi: 10.3389/frym.2021.598169