Every search hour costs you money
Commercial fishing vessels burn fuel whether they're catching or not. When a crew spends days scouting for fish instead of harvesting, the economics deteriorate quickly. Fuel alone represents a significant share of operating costs in most fisheries, and those costs climb every hour a vessel repositions between grounds.
Traditional acoustic surveys help, but they're snapshots. A vessel-based survey gives you data from a specific window, in a specific area, at a specific time. Between surveys, conditions shift. Fish move. Currents change. By the time results are available, they may not reflect what's actually happening on the water.
History repeats itself
The good news is that history repeats itself. Over time, we can track movement and see patterns, which can enable us to predict the future.
What if you could have echo sounder data from your fishing grounds continuously, transmitted to you in real time, without tying up a vessel or crew to collect it?
By combining historical data with current situation, we can predict with great precision what you can expect to find in a specific area.
Fish and biomass location
The echosounder detects schools of fish, krill, and other organisms in the water column. Based on your needs, your Sailbuoy can be configured with transducers operating on 38, 70, 120, 200, or 333 kHz. This allows differentiation between broad taxonomic groups, helping distinguish fish from zooplankton.
Density indicators in real time
Onboard processing delivers reduced-resolution density metrics via satellite during the mission. You don't have to wait for recovery to get actionable information. Daily position updates and density summaries help your team track where biomass is concentrated and how patterns shift over time.
Full-resolution data for post-mission analysis
The complete echo sounder dataset is stored onboard and available after recovery. This supports detailed stock assessment work, biomass estimation, and comparison against historical data or catch records. We have options available for transmitting more data during the mission, to fit your needs.
Environmental context
Sailbuoy can carry additional sensors for temperature, salinity, oxygen, and current profiling. These measurements help explain why fish are where they are, giving you the environmental picture alongside the echo sounder data.
Pelagic fisheries
Herring, mackerel, capelin, sardine, anchovy. Species that move in large schools across open water are natural candidates for autonomous acoustic scouting. NOAA has used USVs similar to Sailbuoy as part of California Current surveys for Pacific sardine and anchovy stock assessments, contributing data that was combined with vessel-based results in official management assessments.
Stock assessment support
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has operated Sailbuoy for over 500 operational days across five years, studying pelagic fish dynamics in marine ecosystems. Their work demonstrates that autonomous platforms can extend temporal coverage into periods and areas that crewed missions can't economically reach.
Pre-season scouting
To better understand what's happening when you are not there, deploy Sailbuoy to fishing grounds ahead of the season opening. By the time your fleet arrives, you can have weeks of echo sounder data showing where biomass has been concentrated, how it has moved, and what environmental conditions are driving the patterns.
Environmental and habitat monitoring
With additional sensors for water quality and temperature, Sailbuoy can support aquaculture site assessment and ongoing environmental monitoring around fish farming operations.
Operational safety and regulations
Sailbuoy operates with AIS receiver, buoy lights, and markings in compliance with maritime regulations. It has been deployed in waters ranging from Antarctic ice edges to tropical conditions, operating in proximity to active fishing fleets.
Regulations for USVs vary by country and operational area. We support customers through the regulatory landscape for their specific region, including situational awareness requirements, route planning, and operational documentation.
During the Antarctic deployment, Sailbuoy operated with full regulatory compliance alongside active fishing vessels. The British Antarctic Survey's 2024 mission in South Georgia waters was the first MCA-approved USV deployment for science in that region, further establishing the regulatory pathway.
Ready to explore what Sailbuoy can do for your operation?
Talk to our team about your monitoring needs. We'll help you evaluate whether autonomous echo counder monitoring fits your fishery, and which service model makes sense.
