The aim of this study was to obtain the basic data on the fish school behavior change to approaching vessel and fish species identification by means of their swimming speed. The surveys were carried out for the juvenile southern blue fin tuna and other fish schools off Esperance, western Australia from January to March 1999. We observed changes of fish school behavior in response to the approaching vessel using 360-degree scanning sonar. The results showed that, a horizontal direction index used to quantify a change of fish school behavior did not identify dependence of a radial distance and a swimming speed. A Mann­Whitney test conducted using the horizontal swimming speed of both species identified by sonar specialists, did not reveal a significant difference.