An acoustical bottom-mounted fish enumeration system

The annual run of sockeye salmon into Bristol Bay, Alaska, is the largest run of this species in the world, and is of vital economic importance to the state of Alaska. To optimize catch and escapement, fishery management personnel need accurate and timely fish population data, but the test fishing techniques currently employed have had limited success. To improve management data, a system of bottom-mounted, upward-looking acoustic sensors specifically designed to assess Bristol Bay salmon is currently under joint development by the Fisheries Research Institute and the Applied Physics Laboratory, both of the University of Washington. This paper describes that system.