MRI: Development of A System for Continuously Monitoring Fish Population and Behavior over Continental Shelf-Scales with Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS)

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Intellectual MeritThe PI is requesting funding to develop and build a portable acoustic source array and handling system for instantaneous continental-shelf-scale imaging and continuous monitoring of fish and marine life. This technique has been successfully demonstrated through the use of a two-vessel system that is no longer in operation. The proposed system can be deployed from a single fixed or mobile vessel to measure abundance, population distributions, and dynamics in time and space in open ocean, shelf, and lake environments. The system will combine an efficient and usable design and the capability for the simultaneous tow of the low-to-mid frequency active source array and a generic receiving array from the same vessel. The proposed instrumentation represents a significant advance over current capabilities; the PIs state that the proposed system represents the first and only portable and towable active source system capable of imaging marine life at 50-km ranges.Broader ImpactsBroader impacts include significant collaborations with fisheries science and management groups nationally (e.g., NMFS) and internationally (e.g,, Peru, Canada, Australia). The significant advance in capabilities offered by the proposed instrumentation will benefit both scientific and management efforts at a time when fisheries stocks are currently being stressed by ecosystem change and stock depletion.