Effects of underwater explosions on fish with a dynamical model to predict fishkill

Abstract

Caged fish, primarily spot (Leiostomus xanthurus and white perch (Morone americana were exposed to underwater explosions in a program to develop and validate a theory on how fish with swimbladders are damaged by explosions. Severity of injury was correlated with the calculated motion of their swimbladders under explosive loading. Many variables (e.g., size and depth of charge, composition of explosive, water depth, bottom composition, distance from explosion, size and depth of fish, etc.) interact to determine the characteristics of the explosion pressure wave and the extent of any resultant fish kill. However, in the case of fish with swimbladders it is now possible to calculate the probable kill from an underwater explosion in deep water and the kill distribution as a function of horizontal range and depth, assuming a uniform spatial distribution for each size class and species of fish