The feasibility of Doppler sonar fish counting

In the course of monitoring and evaluating fish population in the seas, sonar systems have proved a practical and efficient measurement approach. The results obtained, however, from the use of sonar for monitoring fish migration in rivers have been somewhat disappointing-the most troublesome problems being the inability to recognize invalid targets. It has been proposed [1] that a high-resolution Doppler sonar which recognizes a valid target on the basis of its Doppler signature would be a solution to this problem. This paper examines the feasibility of such a target identification scheme. In particular, an examination is made of the nature of returns to be expected from a fish, and of interference sources-principally surface reverberation. From this it is concluded that the Doppler approach is indeed feasible, but that the use of a high-resolution pulsed system capable of separating multiple targets is only possible in a channel width of a few meters.