Advances in Fisheries Management with Acoustic Imaging

Fisheries managers and researchers can face significant challenges in enumerating fish passage of threatened or commercial stocks, monitoring fish behavior in and around dams, fish ladders, trash racks and other structures, categorizing habitat characteristics, and many more scenarios.  The introduction of imaging sonar over a decade ago has provided a valuable tool for accomplishing these tasks, and continues to grow in scope as more innovative uses are added.  This presentation will cover the basics of DIDSON/ARIS imaging sonar operation, its advantages and limitations compared with other technologies, a sampling of the breadth of DIDSON deployments, and the improvements made with the addition of the ARIS.  Real-time options within the ARIScope software and post-processing capabilities of the ARISFish software will also be highlighted.