“Bio-clutter”

December 21, 2015

I overheard a conversation at our recent “Sea Dog” Christmas party about “Bio-clutter”, it’s just what happens when you have a house full of marine biologists and wreck divers. Anyway, I’d just been working on processing these scans and they’re very relevant to the topic.

This is the wreck of the Annapolis, Black Diamond, AWOIS 1856, which we scanned during our three day wreck scanning extravaganza this past summer. There were so many fish on the shipwreck that at times the entire wreck was obscured.

Yet another challenge to getting the “money shot” when it comes to producing nice side scan sonar images of shipwrecks……

 

"Bio-clutter" over the bow of the Annapolis. You can see the individual fish in the water column, the black area in the center, near the first bottom return.
“Bio-clutter” over the bow of the Annapolis. You can see the individual fish in the water column, the black area in the center, near the first bottom return.

 

The entire shipwreck is covered in "Bio-clutter".
The entire shipwreck is covered in “Bio-clutter”.

 

Fish over the bow (upper left) produce a significant difference in detail as compared to the stern (lower right).
Fish over the bow (upper left) produce a significant difference in detail as compared to the stern (lower right).