Soundings, BioSonics' Newsletter

Contents

• Welcome to the Summer Issue of Soundings
  
• Special Training Workshops and Events in Conjunction with AFS Meeting
  
• User News
  • Northwest Team Deploys Submersible Echosounder at Renewable Energy Site
    
  • Southern Illinois University Employs BioSonics DT-X in War on Asian Carp
    
• BioSonics Visits China
  
• Ocean Business 2011 Exhibition a Big Success
  
• Automated Salmon Counter is First of its Kind
  
• BioSonics Bulletin Board
  
• Recent Publications by BioSonics Users
  
• Calendar of Events
  
• GSA Pricing for Federal Users
  
• Contact Us/Newsletter Information

Welcome to Soundings, the BioSonics newsletter! Summer has finally arrived to the Pacific Northwest United States, and it is the perfect time of year to enjoy the local lakes, rivers, and Pacific Ocean coastline. Of course, many BioSonics users have been on the water for countless months prior, conducting hydroacoustic surveys and collecting data. Across the globe, our echosounder systems are being used to detect, categorize, and enumerate aquatic species; estimate biomass; and assist in the establishment of renewable energy sites. We are constantly intrigued and inspired by the projects and goals of our users, and we are proud to be a part of such important work.

It is hard to believe that we are now more than half-way through 2011, but it has been a great year for BioSonics! We have travelled the globe, from Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington; to Sacramento, California; Southampton, United Kingdom; Norway, China, and many places in between! We are also looking forward to an upcoming trip to Kona, Hawaii for the Oceans 2011 Conference, and we will spend some time in our own backyard (Seattle, Washington) during the American Fisheries Society 2011 National Conference in September. Meanwhile, those of us who didn't travel have been hard at work, building and preparing echosounder systems for new and existing users in the United States and abroad.

As always, we are pleased to showcase the accomplishments of our users via this newsletter, and we invite your questions and comments about any of the articles. Furthermore, we invite you to share with us your own hydroacoustic success stories - they just might appear in a future issue of Soundings!

Tim Acker, President and CEO
BioSonics, Inc.

Seattle, Washington - The 2011 National American Fisheries Society meeting will be held in Seattle from September 1-8 and is expected to attract thousands of fisheries professionals from across North America and worldwide. To help out of town visitors make the most out of their trip to Seattle, BioSonics will host a 3-day hydroacoustic workshop on September 12 - 14. Our workshop is an excellent opportunity to learn the basics about hydroacoustic theory, data collection and post processing methods. Space is limited and expected to fill up quickly. Student discounts are available. Call or email BioSonics today to reserve your space.

Throughout the week of the AFS meeting, BioSonics will host DT-X echosounder demonstrations, Elliott Bay harbor tours, social hours, and tours of the BioSonics facility in Seattle's own Fremont district, the self-proclaimed "Center of the Universe." We look forward to welcoming you to Seattle. Be sure to stop by and say hello at booth number 36 in the exhibition hall.

Echoview will offer two training opportunities in Seattle, on either side of the AFS 141st Annual Meeting. Prices and registration details are available online at Echoview's web site.

Register today and make the most of your visit to Seattle, the Emerald City, this September.

Links:
[BioSonics: Training Workshop / Contact ]
[National American Fisheries Society: 141st Annual Meeting]
[Echoview: Training Workshops / Procedures for Data Processing]

NORTHWEST TEAM DEPLOYS SUBMERSIBLE ECHOSOUNDER AT RENEWABLE ENERGY SITE
Admiralty Inlet, WA - In June the University of Washington, working with NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, successfully deployed and retrieved a BioSonics DT-X SUB echosounder after a 1-month deployment in northern Admiralty Inlet, WA. The study location is a proposed Snohomish Public Utility District tidal energy demonstration project site. The BioSonics DTX-SUB is an autonomous scientific echosounder packaged in a subsea pressure housing with integrated power management and data storage systems. "When it's down there, collecting data, it's completely self-contained. There's no line to the surface, no signal to the surface. It's entirely contained in just what you see here," said Jim Thomson, Oceanographer with the University of Washington.

The DT-X SUB is being used to detect, categorize, and enumerate pelagic fish, in vertebrate and marine mammal species at the proposed site. The intent is to allow marine hydrokinetic (MHK) site and device developers to install tidal turbines in suitable locations while minimizing behavioral effects on aquatic organisms.

The programmable DT-X SUB system automatically collected and logged water column backscatter data throughout the month-long deployment. The scientific echosounder was programmed operate in a 10% duty cycle, alternating between pinging and sleep modes. This duty cycle maximized temporal coverage and extended battery life for the duration of the deployment. The system was retrieved using acoustic releases and the data files were downloaded for processing of fish abundance, distribution, and behavior information.

Links:
[BioSonics: Press Release (pdf)]
[BioSonics: DTX-SUB Specs (pdf)]
[NOAA: Northwest Fisheries Science Center]

Carbondale, Illinois - Illinois has become 'ground zero' in the fight against the Asian carp invasion, where the fish have adapted so successfully that the greatest wild densities of bighead and silver carp in the world are now found in the lower three reaches of the Illinois River. The life history characteristics of Asian carp have led to the exponential population growth of Asian carp in the Illinois River since 2000. Asian carp are now poised to invade the Great Lakes from the Illinois River via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The potential environmental and economic implications from such an invasion could be devastating.

An intense commercial fishing operation in the Illinois River system is being initiated to control the spread of Asian carp and reduce their impacts on the native fish community. Determining the standing stock of Asian carp in the Illinois River is a critical initial step in determining the efficacy of controlling these populations with commercial fishing, as well as to determine the potential to meet demands from various markets.

With this in mind, researchers are now investigating the efficacy of a large-scale removal of Asian carp from the Illinois River. To estimate the density, size distribution, and biomass of Asian carp among the five lower reaches of the Illinois River, Southern Illinois University (SIU) researchers, Jim Garvey and David Glover, are conducting hydroacoustic surveys using a BioSonics DT-X split-beam echosounder. To date, they have completed transects along more than 270 total river miles. As Glover explained, the initial results from the DT-X are very encouraging: "The spatial distribution we are seeing confirms everything in the literature. We have been amazed at the results from the hydroacoustic data."

Using GIS, the information will be used to create maps showing biomass and distribution of Asian carp, and will help to identify hotspots for focusing commercial fishing efforts. Other researchers hope to employ the data to develop a model that can be used to predict how much fishing effort would be required to keep Asian carp populations low in perpetuity. Ultimately, it is hoped that this effort will improve conditions in the Illinois River and prevent range expansions of Asian carp to Lake Michigan and other uninvaded systems.

Links:
BioSonics: [Press Release]
Southern Illinois University: [Jim Garvey's Fish Ecology & Management Laboratory]
Wild Jumping Carp On Illinois River [YouTube video]

Shanghai and Wuxi, China - BioSonics' General Sales Manager, Eric Munday, traveled to China to attend two conferences in support of our distributors, Enfo Service Corporation and Zealquest Scientific Technology Co. Ltd. The 9th Annual Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum, held at the beautiful Lingang Campus of Shanghai Ocean University, drew large crowds and BioSonics was well-represented at the event.

During the two-week visit, Eric met with officials at several research institutes and toured aquaculture facilities including the Zhejiang Provincial Laboratory of Mariculture and Enhancement. This impressive facility, accessible by private boat only, is located on Xixuan Island where aqua-culturists conduct research and produce an amazing variety of fin and shellfish.

Eric visited the Shanghai offices of Zealquest, BioSonics' newest distributor for Asia, where he met with company owner Derek Gu. Zealquest is very active in water quality and aquatic habitat research equipment. They attend more than 20 conferences annually. Zealquest has introduced the DT-X echosounder to dozens of fisheries research institutes throughout China and are now establishing a local service and support facility for BioSonics in Shanghai.

The final leg of the journey was a trip west to the city of Wuxi for the 7th International Shallow Lake Conference. The city of Wuxi surrounds Lake Taihu, the 3rd largest freshwater lake in China. This broad, shallow lake was deemed a natural disaster in 2007 by the Chinese Government due to pollution-related toxic algal blooms. Since then, the government has made repeated attempts to reduce contaminants and restore the lake's water quality.

Links:
BioSonics: [DT-X SUB (pdf) / Press Release (pdf)]
Browse BioSonics' [Facebook Photo Album]
Enfo Service Corporation: [Contact]
Zealquest: [Contact]
The 9th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (9AFAF): [Website]

Southampton, UK - In April, BioSonics exhibited at Ocean Business 2011, held at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton. Attendance was at record levels with over 3,000 people from 52 countries. Heads turned as hundreds of visitors to the BioSonics booth had their first look at the DT-X SUB, the exciting new submersible, autonomous echosounder.

In addition to the trade show, Ocean Business 2011 featured over 170 hours of workshop and product demonstrations. Attendees were able to attend dozens of sessions conducted either dockside or aboard one of the nine different survey vessels. BioSonics offered a demonstration of the DT-X mobile echosounder aboard RV Callista, a 65-foot catamaran research vessel. The demonstration was booked to capacity and included a group of BioSonics distributors, clients, and prospects from around the globe.

A technical training session for BioSonics distributors was attended by the largest ever gathering of international representatives from Australia, England, France, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. The consensus among show organizers and exhibitors was that Ocean Business 2011 was an outstanding success - and we have to agree!

Links:
Ocean Business 2011 [Website]
National Oceanography Centre [Website]

Seattle, Washington - Fisheries managers at the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) have a long history of working with BioSonics on management of the salmon resources of the Quinault River. Salmon are a main staple of subsistence for the QIN. While the river supports several viable runs, the blueback sockeye, a highly prized delicacy, represent the most commercially significant salmon run in the river. Accurate and timely measure of salmon escapement is foundational to a successful sockeye harvest management strategy. Historically, sockeye escapement has been estimated by counting adult salmon in Lake Quinault using a BioSonics mobile scientific echosounder. Tribal harvest managers have expressed concerns about using data from lake surveys because of the potential for overestimation due to resident fish, and also due to the lag between the time fish enter the river and the time to complete mobile surveys and generate numerical estimates. QIN harvest managers therefore sought a more timely index of salmon counts to properly manage their fisheries resources. It was widely believed that such an index would most likely be obtained from sampling in the lower river.

Existing methods for counting salmon in rivers vary widely in complexity and scale. Most operations can be labor intensive, and are often manned 24/7 or require frequent visits for maintenance, analyzing data, and reporting of results. BioSonics and QIN envisioned an automated acoustic system that could collect and analyze data in real time, with a communications network that receives daily fish counts from a remote station on the river and publishes results to a web page "dashboard." BioSonics scientists believe such a system with a high degree of automation will provide data to the most people in the shortest amount of time, and have the highest degree of scientific and legal defensibility.

The QIN's desire for a remote, riverine fish counting system was an ideal opportunity to utilize BioSonics' groundbreaking acoustic technology and software advancements. The result is a completely autonomous fish counting system that operates 24 hours a day with minimal manpower, and transmits fish count information in real time.

In May 2011, the automated salmon counting system was deployed in a remote stretch of the Quinault River in Grays Harbor County, Washington. The system consists of 120 kHz split beam transducer and ROS PT 25 rotator mounted to an adjustable track trolley system custom fabricated from anodized aluminum. By the end of the deployment phase, the system was automatically transmitting daily salmon count reports to project managers. BioSonics President Tim Acker expressed the significance of the project: "This pilot stage deployment was monumental. To our knowledge, there is nothing else like this in the world. Completely autonomous, completely automatic fish counting represents a shift in the way fisheries managers work. Imagine sitting at your desk and receiving a fish count report from an unmanned monitoring station twenty miles away."

Links:
To learn more [BioSonics' Automated Monitoring Systems]
Quinault River Automated Salmon Counter [PDF]
Quinault Indian Nation [Website]

• BioSonics would like to thank each of the participants of our Hydroacoustic Assessment Worskhop, held on January 24-26, 2011. We had a record number in attendance, and enjoyed meeting each and every participant! As an added bonus, the team behind Echoview software offered a local training session immediately following our workshop. Some student travelers were able to enjoy two great training opportunities in back-to-back workshops! The events were so successful we're pleased to offer them again, side-by-side with the AFS National Conference in September. See our article above for more information: Special Training Workshops and Events in Conjunction with AFS National Meeting

Vendace in Loch Earn P.S. Maitland, A.A. Lyle, I.J. Winfield, J.F. Fletcher

Extensive diel fish migrations in a deep ultraoligotrophic lake of Patagonia Argentina M. Rechencq, A. Sosnovsky, P.J. Macchi, P.A. Alvear, P.H. Vigliano

Characterization of bottom sediments in lakes using hydroacoustic methods and comparison with laboratory measurements M.A. Anderson and P. Pacheco

Defining Fish Use of Subtidal Vegetated Habitats of the Elwha and Comparative Shorelines J.G. Norris, I.E. Fraser, and H. Julich


Browse other recent publications by BioSonics users!

The BioSonics Calendar of Events is live on our website!

Click the link below and bookmark our Calendar of Events page to keep up-to-date on all of the important hydro-related events. If you know of an upcoming event that is not featured on our list, please let us know!

Links:
[BioSonics Event Calendar]

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BioSonics, Inc., Leading the way in Advanced Scientific Digital Hydroacoustics, and providing the aquatic and marine resource community with scientific grade instrumentation and software, consulting, and support since 1978. BioSonics is the trusted name in hydroacoustics, known for the quality of our products and the depth of our client support.

BioSonics is ready to serve you by providing equipment, software, support, and consulting services for underwater assessment and monitoring. We continue to provide innovative products and services for research and management of the aquatic environment, based on sound science and input from our users.

We look forward to working with you on your next hydroacoustic application.

Published by:
BioSonics, Inc.
4027 Leary Way NW
Seattle, WA 98107
U.S.A.
Tel: (206) 782-2211
FAX: (206) 782-2244

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