A new addition to iXblue’s SeaPiX system provides skippers with a new option to assess species composition on the sounder screen.
‘This is available now and we have had a lot of success with this already, especially early in the season when mackerel were difficult to find,’ said iXblue’s Christoper Corbières, who was demonstrating the system to a stream of interested customers this week on the Sónar stand at the Icelandic Fishing Expo.
He explained that the classifying echogram processing utilises the data already shown in the 2D and 3D mapping, but shows this in echogram format alongside the regular echogram. with the species colour-coded, allowing decisions to be made easily.
‘This means that the skipper can make a direct comparison,’ he said, adding that it’s even possible to select a section of the echogram screen and to apply the classification criteria to this to get an instant breakdown of the species composition of a particular mark.
‘We have done a lot of development work on species identification, and we are seeing an accuracy of 90% or better,’ he said.
The demo Christoper Corbières was showing at the exhibition displayed herring in red and marks of mackerel clearly visible in green, but the skipper has the options to colour-code species according to his own preferences.
‘This classifying echogram processing has now been added to the SeaPix setup and it works well. Here we see it used for pelagic fisheries, but it also works well for groundfish, identifying cod, haddock and saithe.’
