A client/server architecture remote fish finder system for a set net fishery

Abstract

In order to monitor the fish volume entrapped over time in a set net in real time, a new remote fish finder system based on a mobile network was developed and tested. This system was designed with a client/server architecture including an echo sounder terminal, a web server, and some end user display terminals, which allowed fishermen to monitor the fishing state of a set net via any display device. In addition, in order to transfer the echo data smoothly via a mobile network, a fish echo extraction method based on image processing and a data organization structure were proposed, which can significantly reduce the data volume for transmission, supply sufficient information to reconstruct the high resolution echogram at the user terminals, and calculate the positional and morphometric parameters of fish echoes. Furthermore, a semiautomatic data recording method for use with a database was proposed to manage the extracted fish echo data and the fishing records. The functions and capabilities of the new system were demonstrated by a sea trial.