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Workshops
We provide workshops to help scientists learn how to incorporate fishfinders into their research. Below are a list of workshops and corresponding materials (if available). If you are interested in hosting a future event, please reach out to Cameron Bodine.
- Website
- August 10, 2025
- American Fisheries Conference Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, USA
More Information
Low-cost recreation-grade sonar systems (or fishfinders) are common to natural resource management agencies for near real-time navigation and locating aquatic habitats and organisms. However, managers are often unaware the sonar imagery can be readily recorded and provide a wealth of temporal and spatial information for management use. Perhaps the greatest challenge to broader application is a limited understanding of how-to post-process data collected with these systems and classify features in an efficient and reproducible manner. A new phase is underway, transitioning from laborious and time prohibitive manual processing and classification to automated approaches leveraging open-source tools and artificial intelligence. We invite scientists, researchers, biologists, and natural resource managers at all levels of professional stature to attend our workshop and learn how low-cost sonar technology may be used in habitat and fisheries management. We will teach participants on all stages of data acquisition and interpretation, including a general overview of the technology, how to conduct standardized surveys, convert proprietary data to imagery, interpret imagery, apply machine learning tools to classify features, and finally discuss management implications. We will demonstrate and provide hands-on activities for processing sonar datasets we provide or that participants bring with them and offer ample time to discuss management topics in their region and how sonar techniques may be applied to meet their needs. In addition, we will provide participants with an up-to-date literature database of side-scan sonar papers including both foundational and recent studies for reference. Market demand in the recreation-sector drives manufacture competition to develop the next generation of highest quality and low-cost sonar systems. This dynamic provides a wealth of opportunity for fisheries researchers to develop techniques to improve management efficacy. Therefore, we anticipate providing ongoing continuing education courses as technology progresses.
- Cameron Bodine, University of Delaware
- Jesse Fischer, US Geological Survey
- Adam Kaeser, US Fish & Wildlife Service
- Josey Ridgway, US Geological Survey
- Introduction to Low-Cost Side Scan Sonar Applications. Kaeser, A. [Slides]
- Post-Process & Habitat Mapping. Bodine, C. [Slides]
- Side-Scan Sonar Fish Assessments. Ridgway, J.
- Survey Design, Emerging Technologies, & Case Studies. Fischer, J.
- Hands-on: Habitat Mapping. Bodine, C. [The PINGMapper Handbook v1.0]
- Hands-on: Fish Assessments. Ridgway, J. [Materials]
- Website
- September 15, 2024
- American Fisheries Conference Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
More Information
Low-cost recreation-grade sonar systems (or fishfinders) are common to natural resource management agencies for near real-time navigation and locating aquatic habitats and organisms. However, managers are often unaware the sonar imagery can be readily recorded and provide a wealth of temporal and spatial information for management use.
We invite scientists, researchers, biologists, and natural resource managers at all levels of professional stature to attend our workshop and learn how low-cost sonar technology may be used in habitat and fisheries management. We will teach participants on all stages of data acquisition and interpretation, including a general overview of the technology, how to conduct standardized surveys, convert proprietary data to imagery, interpret imagery, apply machine learning tools to classify features, and finally discuss management implications. We will demonstrate data processing techniques using sonar datasets we provide and offer participants ample time to discuss management topics in their region and how sonar techniques may be applied to meet their needs. In addition, we will provide participants with an up-to-date literature database of side scan sonar papers including both foundational and recent studies for reference.
- Cameron Bodine, Northern Arizona University
- Adam Kaeser, US Fish & Wildlife Service
- Josey Ridgway, US Geological Survey
- Introduction to Low-Cost Side Scan Sonar Applications. Kaeser, A.
- Habitat Mapping. Bodine, C. [Slides].
- Side-Scan Sonar Fish Assessments. Ridgway, J.
- Website
- October 22, 2024
- University of Delaware & Delaware Sea Grant, Lewes, DE, USA
More Information
The goals of the day include learning how to use side-scan sonar to identify crab pots, mounting mobile kits on boats, and best practices for collecting great information.
- Cameron Bodine, University of Delaware
- Vince Capone, Black Laser Learning
- Brittany Haywood, Delaware Sea Grant
- Jared Wierzbicki, University of Delaware
- Welcome. Haywood, B.
- Introduction to Side-Scan Sonar. Bodine, C.
- Side-Scan Sonar Setup. Wierzbicki, J.
- Operation. Bodine, C.
- Visual Analysis. Bodine, C. & Capone, V.
- Surveying. Bodine, C. & Capone, V.