Development of a Towed Survey System for Deployment by the Fishing Industry

After two generations of development, we have completed a practical digital imaging system towed by a commercial scallop fishing vessel, that delivers high resolution contiguous overlapping still images to the a computer system on the vessel bridge for storage, immediate viewing and onboard image processing. This non-invasive, high resolution survey of benthic habitat is intended to provide fisherman, fisheries managers and others with information vital to accurate scallop population density estimates and substrate characterization within surveyed areas of the continental shelf.