Marine Accessories

A fishfinder is a type of fathometer, both being specialized types
of echo sounding
systems, a type of Active SONAR.
(‘Sounding’ is the measurement of water depth, a historical nautical term of
very long usage.) The fishfinder uses active sonar to detect fish and ‘the
bottom’ and displays them on a graphical display device, generally a LCD or CRT screen. In
contrast, the modern fathometer (from fathom plus meter, as in ‘to measure’) is designed
specifically to show depth, so may use only a digital display (useless for fish
finding) instead of a graphical display, and frequently will have some means of
making a permanent recording of soundings (which are merely shown and subsequently
electronically discarded in common sporting fishfinder technology) and are
always principally instruments of navigation and safety. The distinction
is in their main purpose and hence in the features given the system. Both work
the same way, and use similar frequencies, and, display type permitting, both
can show fish and the bottom. Thus today, both have merged, especially with the
advent of computer interfaced multipurpose fishfinders combining GPS technology, digital
chart-plotting, perhaps radar and
electronic compass displays in the same affordable sporting unit and many are Hummingbird Fishfinders.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.