LIDAR APPLICATIONS TO FISHERIES MONITORING PROBLEMS

Recent advances in lasers, spectrometers, and multichannel detectors h ave significantly improved the capabilities of LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) systems in the blue-green region of the electromagnetic s pectrum. Because ocean water has minimum absorbance in the blue-green region of the spectrum, the LIDAR has great potential to become a vers atile tool capable of providing the kind and the quantity of biomass a nd water quality (including temperature) data that have been thus far inaccessible to fisheries scientists. The basic physics of the LIDAR i s described including the physics relevant to the problems of light sc attering, reflection, and penetration of water. Two extremes of potent ial LIDAR application (broad, shallow light path and narrow, deep ligh t path) are discussed in terms of estimation of floating egg abundance and fish aggregation at thermal fronts, respectively. It is anticipat ed that the application of LIDAR will allow better estimates of instan taneous rates of change in fish stock parameters, as well as increasin g the amount of data collected to assess heterogeneity of stock abunda nce in both space and time.