A Compact Camera System for Acquiring High Resolution Imagery of Seafloor Biota and Habitats During Towed Net Sampling

Scientific net sampling on the seafloor using a variety of trawls and sleds provides valuable information on biota and habitats to biologists and fisheries managers. Specifically, the species composition and abundances of fishes and invertebrate mega-benthos are routinely derived from net sampling operations to determine, respectively, stock size and habitat structure. Relatively large net sampling tools such as fish trawls, beam trawls and benthic sleds can be used as platforms to carry imaging technologies to acquire vision of the seafloor, for example on the headline of a fish trawl net (Figure 1). Video and photographic images of the seafloor can greatly increase the data provided by each net deployment and thereby the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of surveys. Because the image data are co-located with catches they have the potential to provide a variety of valuable scientific insights into species-habitat associations and selectivity characteristics of the net sampler
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, More generally, image data provide measures of habitat diversity and species distributions
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, and the direct impacts of human activities on benthic habitats from fishing
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.