Fisheries Research 35 Ž1998.

137–141

Review: experiences with shallow water acoustics

)
Richard E. Thorne
BioSonics, 4027 Leary way NW, Seattle, WA 98107, USA

Abstract

Thirty years of experience in shallow water acoustic applications is reviewed in a variety of situations and environments.
Particular attention is given to side-looking transducers, applied simultaneously with down-looking ones, in order to estimate
fish distributed near the water surface. The success of side-looking operations is primarily limited by transducer and
boundary characteristics, requires smooth water conditions but may generate double image echoes as a result of dual acoustic
paths. Amongst the various modes of transducer deployment, the side-looking technique has the best spatial coverage but
near-boundary detection is best with fixed location, particularly with recently developed remote, automated fixed location
systems. Other problems are reviewed. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Acoustics; Fish; Shallow water, side-looking transducer; Boundary limitations

1. Introduction The term ‘shallow water’ is a relative term. In a

The shallow water environment offers several
challenges to acoustic applications. One major limi-
tation is the impact of boundaries. Sound propaga-
tion can be difficult in the presence of boundaries,
and fish targets may be difficult to resolve near
boundaries. A second limitation is sampling power.
Since acoustic beams are cone-shaped, sampling
power is drastically reduced when achievable ranges
are short. Unfortunately, there are many applications
which fall under the category of shallow water. This
paper describes over 2 decades of the author’s per-
sonal experience in shallow water environments and
demonstrates the considerable variety of habitats and
applications under this category.
)
Corresponding author. Fax: q1 206 782 2244; e-mail:
bio@biosonicsinc.com
strict acoustic sense, shallow water could be defined
as any environment where acoustic applications are
impacted by both surface and bottom boundaries. In
a broader sense, any environment impacted by
boundaries exhibits the problems associated with the
shallow water environment. These include assess-
ment of near-surface fish and fish associated with
artificial reefs and other structures such as power
plant intakes.
The acoustic instrumentation applied to shallow
water environments may vary considerably in fre-
quency, beam dimensions and type, including
single-beam, dual-beam and split-beam, but most
applications fit into two general categories: Ž1. fixed
location techniques ŽThorne and Johnson, 1993. and
Ž2. horizontal techniques ŽTarbox and Thorne, 1996..
The brief review of applications described below are
grouped into five categories: artificial reefs and off-
shore power plant intakes; hydroelectric facilities on
rivers; lakes and reservoirs; shallow marine applica-

0165-7836r98r$19.00 q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII S 0 1 6 5 - 7 8 3 6 Ž 9 8 . 0 0 0 6 8 - X
138 R.E. Thorner Fisheries Research 35 (1998) 137–141
tions; and the last is the general riverine environ-
ment.
2. Artificial reefs and offshore power plant in-
takes
Artificial reefs and offshore power plant intakes
have similar characteristics. Both are usually struc-
tures on the bottom. One is designed to attract and
provide habitat for fish ŽThorne et al., 1989.. Such
attraction is a problem for the other. Studies at both
are generally concerned with evaluation of fish asso-
ciated with the structure. In the case of the power
plant intakes, studies may be concerned with meth-
ods to prevent fish entrainment.
One of the first applications of ‘fixed location’
acoustic techniques was used to investigate the be-
haviour of fish around the cooling water intake
structure of a coastal generating station ŽThorne et
al., 1979.. Transducers were placed at three loca-
tions: two were bottom-mounted, upward-looking at
5 m and 8 m from the intake, and a third was
mounted on a video camera that was located atop the
velocity cap of the intake structure. The continuous
record of data over 48 h provided documentation on
reverse diel migrations, dramatic changes in diel
activity levels and light attraction ŽThorne, 1980.. At
other power plants, studies begun on thermal attrac-
tion of fish to cooling water discharges soon changed
in focus to fish entrainment problems at four intakes
ŽThomas et al., 1980.. The techniques developed for
these surveys are possibly the most effective applica-
tion of down-looking mobile techniques: small-boat
operations, bow-mounted towing vehicles with near-
surface transducer location. Depths were only about
10 m, but the acoustic surveys were able to docu-
ment fish behaviour and establish the effectiveness
of several ways to minimize fish entrapment, includ-
ing velocity caps and reduced night-time intake flow
rates. Although effective, the cost of mobile surveys
was high compared with fixed location alternatives.
Consequently, this led to the development of totally
automated fixed-location techniques for monitoring
fish entrapment at a power plant cooling water intake
during 1990–1993, which also incorporated a high-
frequency sound fish-deterrent device ŽRoss et al.,
1993; Thorne, 1994.. Transducers were horizontally
located near the intake at depths of 7 m and cables
were run to the electronics located onshore. The data
collected continuously over periods of 2 months in
1991 and 1992 and three months in 1993 demon-
strated a substantial decrease in fish entrainment
when the device was operational compared with a
control situation Žperiodic on–off experiments in
1991 or an adjacent power plant without the device..
3. Hydroelectric facilities on rivers
Studies of salmonid downstream migration past
hydroelectric facilities have contributed heavily to
the development of fixed-location techniques and
understanding fish detection near boundaries. Thorne
and Johnson Ž1993. reviewed over 60 major applica-
tions on the Colombia and Snake Rivers during the
1980s. These studies have contributed to understand-
ing problems of turbine entrainment of fish and the
development of bypass systems to reduce mortalities.
They also led to development of sophisticated multi-
plexing echosounders, efficient automated data col-
lection and helped to accelerate the appearance of
high frequency split-beam echosounders. One of the
most successful applications was at Well Dam on the
Columbia River from the 1980s to 1990s ŽThorne
and Johnson, 1993..
A recent study applied tracking split-beam sonars
to evaluate the use of surface bypass flows to reduce
fish entrainment, by as much as 50% at the Ice
Harbour Dam on the Snake River ŽBioSonics, 1996..
Detailed behaviour of fish approaching the bypass
was obtained with a tracking split-beam. Unlike the
conventional split-beam, which is fixed in orienta-
tion, a tracking split-beam locks on to a fish target
and the transducer rotates to track the path of the fish
for up to tens of meters. The depth of the fish
approach was the most important factor for entrain-
ment and fish below 5 m depth were likely to be
caught in the turbine flow. At New York State Dam
on the Mohawk River ŽThorne and Hedgepeth, 1996.,
an acoustic system was used to operate the bypass
gate to permit the passage of downstream migrant
juvenile bluejack herring. Here a combination of
fixed-location up-looking and horizontally scanning
transducers was used to detect the presence of fish in
the forebay. When fish are detected, the bypass gate
 R.E. Thorner Fisheries Research 35 (1998) 137–141
flow is automatically increased, in an incremental
manner for as long as fish are detected. The converse
occurs when the acoustic system no longer detects
fish in the forebay. The operation was entirely auto-
mated, 24 h per day for the 3-month period of fish
migration.
4. Lakes and reservoirs
One of the author’s first acoustic surveys was on
Lake Washington in 1968 ŽThorne and Woodey,
1970. to assess juvenile sockeye salmon. Acoustic
surveys in sockeye salmon nursery lakes have be-
come an important management tool, with the result
that the author has been involved in about 1000
sockeye salmon lake surveys. In most cases, sockeye
salmon distribution is sufficiently limnetic that these
surveys do not come under the heading of ‘shallow
water’. However there are exceptions where near-
boundary distributions have precluded conventional
down-looking acoustic approaches. Only recently
have these exceptions been revisited with mobile
side- and down-looking acoustic surveys.
Side-looking surveys in lakes have been very rare.
A notable exception was Johnston Ž1981. who suc-
cessfully estimated rainbow trout populations in five
shallow lakes in Washington with estimates in good
agreement with non-acoustic census techniques.
Thorne et al. Ž1992. used the multiplexing capability
of the BioSonics Model 102 dual-beam echosounder
to simultaneously look horizontally and vertically for
assessing near-surface salmonids in the Lower Gran-
ite Reservoir Ž39 miles long. over four seasons. The
study confirmed that the near-surface and near-shore
habitats were important for fish, with 7% of the
downstream migrant salmonids distributed in the up-
per 2 m. In 1995, a subsequent survey of part of the
same reservoir with side and down techniques con-
sisted of 30-day and 29-night surveys between April
16 and June 12 and showed a shoreward migration
of the near-surface fish ŽBioSonics, 1996.. The sea-
sonal variation of fish abundance was virtually iden-
tical to run timing detected at the Lower Granite
Dam by fixed location acoustics. Similar near-surface
and near-shore distributions for trout populations
have been detected by side and down techniques.
One advantage of side-looking is the greater sam-
139
pling coverage of the available near-surface habitat,
as shown in Bull Run Lake in Oregon where 25%
coverage was achieved. When lakes are surveyed in
remote areas such as Alaska which require helicopter
access, the high portability and ease of operation of a
new generation of digital transducer echosounders
developed by BioSonics is an advantage since data
can be collected from small inflatables with electric
motors.
5. Near-shore marine applications
Involvement with shallow water marine applica-
tions has ranged from Alaska to Costa Rica and has
been concerned with a variety of acoustic problems.
Thorne Ž1980. used fixed location techniques to
obtain information on fish abundance and behaviour
during the period of ice cover near Prudhoe Bay,
Alaska. In a total depth of 6 m, including 2 m of ice
cover, transducers were deployed through a hole in
the ice and were positioned by divers, one on the
bottom about 15 m from the hole, oriented upwards,
and the second about 5 m from the hole, against the
ice, oriented downwards. Observations were made
during three 5-day periods between February and
May, 1979. Fish detection rates were greater during
night and morning hours with distributions highest in
the bottom portion of the water column. Fish could
be detected within 15 cm of the ice and bottom.
Subsequent acoustic studies in the near-shore
Beaufort Sea during the open water periods of 1979–
1981 deployed both vertical and horizontal fixed
location techniques as well as small boat down-look-
ing ones. One experiment provided evidence for the
potential capability of horizontally oriented transduc-
ers under ideal conditions, for example, the range of
detectability of a standard target Ž; y40 dB. in
0.7-m water depth. In glass calm surface conditions
and a uniformly smooth sand bottom, a 420-kHz
transducer with a 20-dB Žone-way. sidelobes could
detect the standard targets at 100 m range. This
experiment clearly demonstrated that backscatter
from boundaries is the primary limitation to fish
detection in shallow waters using horizontally ori-
ented transducers.
Experience of the limitations of the fixed location
technique with upward, downward and slant angled
140 R.E. Thorner Fisheries Research 35 (1998) 137–141
transducer orientations for studies on fish abundance
and behaviour in relation to tidal currents ŽThorne et
al., 1989. led to more attention being paid to tech-
niques with mobile, horizontally-oriented transducers
between 1992–1996 in Alaskan near-shore situa-
tions. Tarbox and Thorne Ž1996. compared mobile
horizontal orientation and fixed location vertical ori-
entations Žup-looking from a paravane. for assessing
adult salmon. The mobile horizontal approach gave
the best detectability and compared favourably with
non-acoustic measures of fish abundance but was
vulnerable to weather conditions, reflections off
aquatic macrophytes and air entrained by rip cur-
rents. The authors provide a comparison of ranges
achieved under various wind conditions. In another
study on forage fish abundance and distribution in
relation to seabirds, it was shown that both fish and
birds were oriented strongly to the near-shore envi-
ronment. As before, weather conditions influenced
range detection but 100-m ranges were routinely
attained in the detection of fish schools. It proved
possible to classify the size of fish schools from
numerous small schools Ž- 5 m diameter. identified
as juvenile salmon to larger schools Žmostly ) 20
m. identified as Pacific herring.
6. Riverine applications
Most riverine environments fit the classification
of shallow water, and provide major challenges to
acoustic applications. Nevertheless, accurate meth-
ods of fish assessment in this environment can be
extremely important. This has been particularly true
in Alaska, where information on the magnitudes of
adult salmon escapement into rivers is a crucial
component for management of extremely valuable
fisheries. With appropriate knowledge, simple tech-
nology could be deployed. For example, sockeye
salmon migrate very near-shore and near bottom.
High frequency Ž515 kHz. and narrow Ž2–48., single
beam echocounting systems have proven to be suc-
cessful in this situation although success has de-
pended upon careful site selection. Acoustic applica-
tions in Alaska date back to the early 1960s, and
acoustic techniques have been extensively used for
fisheries management in Alaska since the late 1970s.
Factors in the selection include lack of tidal influ-
ence and relatively smooth bottom features.
7. Horizontal applications
Whilst horizontal orientation has greatly facili-
tated surveys of various kinds of shallow water
habitats, there are several complications. One is the
limitation to relatively calm water in lakes and reser-
voirs and near-shore marine sites otherwise detection
of near-surface fish is severely limited by backscatter
from rough surfaces. Range limitations occur all the
time from bottom reflections in shallow water. This
was serious for trout surveys because of the near-
shore distribution of these fish. Detection of double
images of targets as a result of surface bounce has
implications for both abundance estimates and target
strength measurement, notably occurring under glass
calm conditions and at greater ranges. In general, the
author has not used target strength information from
the side-looking transducers when information of
fish size is required because results have been too
variable to be useful. As most experience has been
with a frequency of 420 kHz, it may be that better
information can be obtained with lower frequencies
but it is likely that the variability in fish aspect may
be too great to overcome at any reasonable fre-
quency.
While horizontally-oriented transducer techniques
have the advantage of high sampling power which is
often critical in marine surveys, there are situations
when fish assessment with fixed location techniques
can be very effective. Fixed location techniques ob-
tain better near-boundary detections, but at the ex-
pense of much reduced spatial coverage. In many of
the circumstances described earlier Žartificial reefs,
offshore cooling water intakes and hydroelectric fa-
cilities., spatial coverage has been a minor problem
that is easily solved with multiplexing echosounders.
However, estimation of populations of fish usually
requires the greater spatial coverage of mobile sur-
veys.
Riverine acoustic applications have met with
mixed success. Single beam transducers can be used
where sizing and directionality factors are not impor-
tant. Situations where directionality is critical pro-
vide much greater challenges, even for split-beam
systems. The resolution of near surface and bottom
boundaries remains a major problem for river appli-
cations. Extremely low sidelobe systems are crucial
such studies. Other major challenges for river appli-
 R.E. Thorner Fisheries Research 35 (1998) 137–141
cations include the presence of multiple targets. Most
successful applications have been situations where
virtually all targets could be individually resolved
and counted. Target strength determination is ex-
tremely difficult in the riverine environment. Some
unresolved problem include the high side aspect
variability, multiple targets, non-point source reflec-
tion and multipath reflections. Most riverine suc-
cesses have been limited to echocounting of large
upstream migrating fish as single targets. Assessment
of downstream moving fish is complicated by the
high noise environment but helped by the improve-
ments of signal-to-noise ratios of the new generation
of high frequency digital transducer split-beams. An
exception is detection of schooled fish, but scaling
echointegration techniques in such circumstances is
questionable. Clearly, the general riverine environ-
ment is the most challenging to acoustic assessment
of all the shallow water habitats discussed in this
paper.
8. Impacts of technology
Technological developments will continue to im-
prove the capability of acoustic systems for shallow
water applications. Major improvements have been a
feature of the past 2 decades, including automated
multiplexing echosounders, digital transducer sys-
tems, low sidelobe transducers and split-beam sys-
tems. However, if there is one lesson that can be
passed on from the two decades of experience high-
lighted in this paper, it is that researchers in shallow
water habitats need, first of all, to understand that
habitat. That begins with an understanding of the
objectives of any application, then an understanding
of the biology of the target itself and lastly, an
understanding of the technology so that it can be
applied appropriately. The example of sockeye
salmon in Alaskan rivers illustrates this: knowing
where they were in the river during migration Žnear-
shore and near the bottom. permitted the deployment
of a single beam system with high frequency and
very narrow beam angle in a carefully selected site
with no tidal influence and a smooth bottom. In my
experience, a well considered application with sim-
ple technology has a higher success rate than a
poorly understood application of the most advanced
technology. This does not mean to imply that re-
141
searchers cannot benefit considerably from advance-
ments in technology, but it is important not to re-
place understanding of the topic being studied with
blind application of any technology.
Technical or institutional reports Žavailable from
the author or BioSonics..
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