PyEcholab: An open-source, python-based toolkit to analyze water-column echosounder data

Abstract

Water-column echosounder data are widely used for a diversity of research objectives from fisheries abundance to identifying methane seeps to characterization of the seafloor. However, these data are voluminous, complex, and recorded in instrument-specific binary file formats. Tools to process these data are limited to a few commercial applications or custom programs developed by researchers, leaving potential users without sufficient financial resources or programming knowledge to use the data. To address this problem, NOAA Fisheries, University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) scientists are developing PyEcholab. PyEcholab is an open-source, python-based system for reading, processing, and visualizing water-column echosounder files. Currently, the system is being developed to meet existing NCEI processing and visualization needs but PyEcholab’s base classes and open architecture provide a framework for developing new file readers, processing algorithms, and visualization techniques that can be modularized into the system. The long-term vision is to engage the community in an open-source effort that continually grows PyEcholab’s capabilities and expands the accessibility of water-column echosounder data.