Integration of Scientific Echo Sounders with an Adaptable Autonomous Vehicle to Extend Our Understanding of Animals from the Surface to the Bathypelagic

AbstractAcoustic echo sounders designed to map and discriminate organisms in the water column have primarily been deployed on ships. Because of acoustic attenuation of higher frequencies used to detect and discriminate micronekton and nekton, this has effectively restricted the range of this information to the upper water column. In an effort to overcome these range limitations by reducing the distance between the transducer and the targets of interest, dual-frequency (38 and 120 kHz) split-beam echo sounders were integrated into a Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS) 600 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), effectively doubling the range of quantitative acoustic data into the mesopelagic zone (600–1200 m). Data from the first set of missions in a range of conditions revealed that the AUV provided a stable platform for the echo sounders and improved vertical and horizontal positional accuracy over echo sounders towed by ships. In comparison to hull-mounted echo sounders, elimination of ship noise...

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