Towards the inclusion of broadband acoustic methods in the assessment of benthopelagic fish stocks

Highlights- Broadband echosounders provide effective detection of individual fish and open new opportunities for echo-counting.- Echo-counting is used to assess the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) stock of the Nuuk fjord, Greenland, and is compared to echo-integration and to the stock assessment model SAM.- Echo-counting estimates 12% more cod than echo-integration and 6.3% more than SAM.- Echo-counting is proposed as a stock assessment tool for benthopelagic fish, supplemented with echo-integration for high-density patches (Sawada index is >0.04).