World Lake Day – 27 August
Lakes are among our planet’s most vital natural resources. They provide drinking water, support agriculture and industry, and sustain communities. On this inaugural World Lake Day we join in celebrating the importance of over 117 million lakes globally and the people dedicated to studying and protecting them.
Across the world, researchers are using active sonar and other technologies to better understand lake ecosystems, from observing fish behavior and assessing populations, to monitoring vegetation and mapping habitats. Echoview helps make this work possible by turning echosounder data into meaningful insights for management and conservation.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Oklahoma State University have been working together on the development of protocols for efficient and accurate echosounder surveys of fish in Arkansas lakes. In July, Echoview scientist Toby Jarvis visited the team at Beaver Lake in Arkansas to test the effect of different data collection settings using a Kongsberg Discovery EK80 WBT Mini echosounder with an ES200-7C transducer.
A single transect was run repeatedly while systematically changing the pulse type (narrowband or wideband), pulse duration, transmit power, ping interval, and vessel speed. Processing of the data in Echoview followed by a preliminary analysis of the exported results has yielded insights into the optimal settings for future surveys to minimize survey time and maximize accuracy, safety, and crew comfort. The satellite image below provides an overview of the survey.
Projects such as the Beaver Lake experiment highlight how echosounders and collaborative science can contribute to a better understanding and management of lakes worldwide.
To find out how Echoview and our team of specialists can support your lake project, research, or environmental monitoring programs, please contact us: info@echoview.com.
