Fishing - Plots on Marimsys Charts and Explanations
| Groundfish | Mid-Water / Pelagic | Exploratory |
| Gillnet | Long Liners - Pelagic | Scientific Data Gathering |
| Long Liner | New Species Location | |
| Trappers | ||
| Trawler |
General Notes on Download Images
Image downloads will open in a new browser window and require some seconds to download. The image format is .jpg. This format is suitable for www downloading, as it is relatively rapid to download, provides adequate quality to understand the image, and can be viewed in most Web Browsers and graphics programs. We normally use the Marine Imaging Systems vector file format. This image format can be viewed in our proprietary software and provides significantly improved clarity of image and extensive zoom capability. This allows us to put significantly more detail in each chart - and to load much larger files almost instantaneously.
This portion of a chart was made from data collected with the Marimsys BRIDGE system. The data used to make this chart, and the actual chart image itself are the property of Captain Steíngrimur Þorvaldsson of F/ Vigri, Reykjavik. This reduced section of the original chart is used with permission, click on the icon to see the image.
This chart covers approx. 1 mile from North to South and is located SW of Iceland on the Reykjanes Ridge. It is horizontally accurate to better than 5 meters (Icelandic DGPS), the accuracy would be approx. 30 meters if made elsewhere in the world with only GPS available. It is cast with 2 fathom contours to deal with printing on paper, where normally we would have made the image file with 1 fathom contours (where Marimsys BRIDGE software was available for zooming). Look at how you can start trawling at the top of the image, on any contour, and move down the image only keeping away from the snag at the drop-off (right at number "120"); round the point and enter the valley to the SE anywhere below the 120 meter contour. Then you can fish around in the valley, avoiding obstacles by seeing them. To exit the valley to the south you would do so below the 150m contour. This is navigation of a trawl or long line by seeing hard bottom and obstacles, not by "known safe contour" and "plotting marks". With the direction of current flow and state of the tide known, one begins to recognize patterns between fish observed on the fishfinder and the type of terrain on the chart where they were observed; and becomes capable of predicting what terrain will be most productive to fish.
Fishing with this image you can go right into the hard bottom and catch the fish, while avoiding the snags.
See Marimsys Charts
Satellite Bathymetric Chart
These are custom made charts for areas that help you in your fishing, they are denominated
in meters or fathoms and the depths indicated represent a close approximation of what you
will find at the site. This image shows O'Higgins Bank, 100 or
so nm NW of Valparaiso, Chile. The area has recently acquired some importance due to the
"Orange Roughy Boom" in Chile. The chart is severely reduced in detail and
quality from the charts which we produce for use in Marimsys BRIDGE, but serves to present
the general idea of satellite based bathymetric charting. These charts show the
general type of depths and contours in an area, and the Latitude and Longitudes necessary
to locate the area. Accuracies in the charts, generally of 5 deg x 5 deg, tend to be in
the order of a few miles. In this particular chart, the peaks are prolific Orange Roughy
areas, and the surrounding abyssal plain is presumed to be productive of deep water
shrimp. To the East of the image is the West edge of the tectonic fault or chasm
which goes up the entire West Coast of South America. On the East and West sides of
this fault below 1000 meters are other species just entering into production. The
purse seiners and pelagic long liners encounter good fishing around this Bank as it
provides the basis for its own pelagic food chain.
See: Gravity Based Charting - How it Works
We custom make these charts for new areas our clients are exploring, or to obtain a different view of their usual fishing grounds. These images are denominated in mGals (milliGals) and tend to be the best contour representation of the ocean floor. The image covers approximately 90 miles N to S with detail reduced for the web, accuracy is plus or minus 4 miles. This image, showing seamounts and a portion of the Chatham Rise, east of New Zealand, displays a large series of drop-offs, which if they were a bit further south would be excellent toothfish habitat. Least depth areas over the seamounts and their approximate shape and general contours are well shown. Four off-lying seamounts are South of the large lava flow which forms the Chatham Rise.
For fishing new areas, this charting gets you directly to the correct sort of bottom. When you get there the charts save time because you already know the outlines of the bottom features and begin fishing more quickly - you spend less time steaming around looking at the bottom in the echosounder.
See: Gravity Based Charting - How it Works
This is a colored infrared light download of the south-central
South American coasts. Marine Imaging Systems manufactures, sells and services a
full line of APT and HRPT satellite reception systems. For more information
see SIRS (Satellite Infrared
Reception Systems) and SIRS HRPT (Satellite Infrared Reception
System - High Resolution Infrared Transmission). These images are transmitted by
NOAA satellites (National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration) many times a day.
With these images you can view the intersection between different currents, the
advances of current fronts, coastlines and cloud fronts.
The image at the upper left shows areas of warm water coming down from the Peruvian coast. The intersection between these warm areas and the surrounding colder water is the foundation of the anchoveta and sardinia fishery of the area.
At the lower right the warm and slowly south-moving Brazil current is shown; this current is penetrated by a rapidly moving cold current called either the Falklands Current or Corriente de Malvinas, depending upon political persuasion. The intersection between these currents off the Argentine and Uruguayan coasts provides the ecology for the harvest of various species of tuna.
Satellite Visible Light Image
This image is visible light. You can think of these images as photographs taken by the satellite and received by the earth station as the satellite passes over, in real time. That is to say that the station receives the images line by line as the satellite takes the photograph. This gives NOAA satellite imagery a huge advantage in timeliness for predicting weather - the images provide a view of what is happening NOW.
Special Charting
Marine Imaging Systems creates charts of various environmental phenomenon that are of use to our clients. This could be a chart of seabottom temperature, expected seabottom temperature vs. actual seabottom temperature, fish captures vs. temperature, mGal level vs. fish captures, mGal vs. background magnetic anomaly, salinity vs. temperature / chlorophyll or other microorganism content, microhabitat investigations and many other types of analysis. These products are part of specific consulting projects and the client has always retained all rights to the analysis.