Bergen acoustic buoy (BAB)—A tool for remote monitoring of marine resources

Marine resource abundance monitoring is often accomplished by means of research vessel acoustic surveys. Vessel time is limited and expensive, and optimal and cost-efficient utilization is required. Such vessels have clear limitations in observing the true acoustic distribution, density, and acoustic properties of marine organisms due to noise and light emitted during surveying and sampling. A potential solution to some of the emerging problems is a remote operated acoustic device, which can be used to monitor distribution, density, movements, and properties of marine organisms under natural and survey vessel affected conditions. In this paper a new concept for a remote operated acoustic data logger is presented which can give an online presentation of the acoustic information. The system is built on the new Simrad General Purpose Transceiver (GPT) operated through a standard windows NT interface. The technical specification and operational features will be presented and exemplified with experience from the first sea trials. The system is designed to meet demands from other applications, e.g., a drop sonde and towed underwater function, and future development of the concept is discussed.