Award Notification 1305M324C0040

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) uses underwater moorings to collect various sources of data on the status of marine resources. Configurable data types include passive and active acoustic, sonar, video, environmental, and eDNA data.

The application of these diverse datasets is wide but includes the enumeration of reef fishes, assessment of suitable habitat, and identification of protected species, which collectively feed into Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) products. The difficulties in effectively surveying resources using video in habitats with low visibility have resulted in the allocation of funds to develop next-generation survey techniques, which include altering survey platforms to include acoustic technology. Specifically, imaging sonar instrumentation.