Due to the heterogeneity of the seabed, a high number of observations are needed to find regularities, endless measurement campaigns, sophisticated and expensive measuring devices and complex numerical and statistical analyses. In order to reduce costs and use the usual consumer electronics already developed, researchers from the OCEANO-ECIMAT Group of the Physical Oceanography group of the University of Vigo (Noela Sánchez), of the UNED (Daniel Rodríguez) and of the Fish Ecology group of CENPAT (Argentina), are studying the possibility of using acoustic data obtained with probes similar to those used in fishing, present even in small boats, to detect benthic habitats.
Co desenvolvemento da electrónica de consumo, os científicos propuxeron recentemente solucións enxeñosas para usar ferramentas comúns para facer o seu traballo a un prezo módico, como, por exemplo, tarxetas gráficas de computador desenvolvidas para os videoxogos e empregadas en medicina e oceanografía. Na ciencia mariña, especialmente no estudo do fondo mariño, empréganse ecosondas científicas e programas de computador altamente especializados e moi custosos para estudar algo que todo o mundo pode “ver” nas súas sondas de embarcacións pequenas e medianas. Fronte a este feito, os investigadores plantexáronse usar esta electrónica de consumo como sonda ou detector de hábitats bentónicos.
As Noela Sánchez and Daniel Rodríguez explain, although all echosounders follow the same general scheme, depending on the object of study (fish schools, plankton, seabeds, etc.) and the buyer’s budget, scientific echosounders vary in their technical characteristics: frequencies used, width of the acoustic beams, number of transducers working synchronously, etc. In studies of benthic habitats, these characteristics determine, among other things, “when” and “where” the acoustic wave reaches the seabed and the detail it provides about it (the depth at which it is found, the acoustically different formations that are there, etc.) so that the more detail, the more expensive the echosounder. In fishing and recreational boats there are often echosounders that show objects in the water column (fish, algae) and the seabed on electronic screens. These echosounders do not look for the stability of the acoustic signal or a good signal-to-noise ratio in reception, or more details than the distance to the “obstacles”. However, for visualization reasons, they acquire information similar to that stored by the software of scientific echosounders. Noela, Daniel and their collaborators analyze how to use this “visual” information to carry out “low-cost” studies of the seabed. The next objective would be to perform a statistical analysis (with R) that allows them to differentiate even more types of bottoms, as has already been done with scientific echosounders.
In Galicia there are more than 4000 inshore fishing boats and almost 20000 recreational boats. If the use of sounders on fishing boats proposed by researchers from the University of Vigo, UNED and CENPAT works, can you imagine how much information we could have about our seabed?
For more information, please visit our blog:
https://oceanoecimat.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/el-desafio-de-usar-elementos-comunes-como-herramientas-cientificas-un-ejemplo-marino/
Photography by Gastón Trobbiani & Alejo Irigoyen
