FAD Sonar
One of the major ways that large pelagic fish are being caught these days is via the use of Fish Aggregating Devices or FADs. Animals are attracted to almost any floating object and they can then be scooped up by large fishing nets after they have aggregated around them. This efficient form of fishing is contributing to the depletion of the oceans fish via the indiscreet methodology (there's lots of by catch that is thrown away) and also because in many instances, juveniles are being caught. These young fish cannot then mature and go on to being parents of new, small baby animals. Studying the aggregation of animals around these FADs has many potential merits. For one, if different types of fish inhabit different depths around these devices the fisherman might develop more selective methods. In addition, if different fish are preferentially around these devices as a function of time of day, we might be able to time the harvest to minimize impact. Our rotating side scanning sonar system has the potential to yield this kind of information by recording the reflections from the animals around these FADs. Together with colleague Kim Holland of the University of Hawaii we intend to deploy our new sonar around an FAD offshore of Oahu in Hawaii in the near future. Hopefully we can provide some key information that will allow us to save juvenile animals and insure the longevity of fish stocks.
Please see detailed specifications below:
- Principal Investigators: Jules Jaffe
- Project Engineer: F. Simonet
- Analog Engineer: Lloyd Green
- Mechanical Engineer: Kevin Hardy
- Software Development: David Martin
- Lab Assistants: Yuriy Platoshyn, Daniel Su, Chris Tung
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 78mm20ballkecktank.pdf | 231 KB |





