Humminbird Side Imaging for Search/Rescue, part 2

Here are some more details from my evening orientation session with the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office and the Chippewa Fire district dive team. This was to be an evening dive and imaging session, facilitated by IDO sponsor Skeeter Boat Center, Humminbird, and Jason Halfen Outdoors. I was happy to be able to provide my time and expertise to introduce the Sheriff’s office and dive team to Humminbird’s Side Imaging technology, and how it could assist them in the rather somber task of locating a victim underwater.

Our work took place on the south end of Lake Wissota, near the sandy island that sees a fair amount of recreational boating activity during the summer. Joining me in the WX 2000T were Skeeter Boat Center manager Dan Meyer, Lt. Mitch Gibson from the Chippewa County Sheriff’s office, and the head diver from the dive team, a US Navy veteran who has sadly recovered more than one drowning victim from our area lakes. Working with us were 3 other members of the Chippewa Fire District dive team.

After selecting an area to dive in, the head diver gave me some instruction about how to operate the WX 2000T safely in an area containing divers. Following their equipment checks, the divers began to descend into the depths. I would drive past their dive location, and save the images of the divers using the Humminbird Screen Capture utility.

Once the dives concluded, the group gathered around the WX 2000T to review the images I captured. It was my impression from talking with Lt. Gibson and the dive team that this was their first experience with Humminbird’s Side Imaging technology. After seeing the images I collected, they concluded that Side Imaging would be a great tool for cutting down the dive time required to find an underwater victim.

Now, on to the screen captures.

The first set of images are all of different SCUBA divers. They were near or on the bottom in 15-20 feet of water. Soft tissue doesn’t provide the greatest sonar return, but the sonar shadows from the divers are easy to see.

The free diver was in the water column, but definitely not on the bottom. His features were pretty easy to discern, as he was swimming parallel to the boat’s path. The SCUBA divers were generally vertical, on or near the bottom, so their features (arms, legs) were generally not visible.

Thanks to Lt. Mitch Gibson and the Chippewa Fire District dive team for spending a beautiful night on the water with Dan and me. Thanks for EVERYTHING you guys do to help keep us all safe and sound.

Thanks also to IDO sponsor Skeeter Boat Center for facilitating last evening’s event, and for giving me some more time in the diver’s seat of a WX 2000T. Skeeter Boat Center supports iDofishing.com, professional and recreational anglers, AND the community that we all share…Skeeter Boat Center deserves your support as well.

Finally, for the guys interested in the technical aspects:

My speed was between 2.5 and 3.5 mph.

Chart speed = 3.

Side image range = 120 feet.

Water depth under the boat was 20-30 feet. The divers were primarily in water 15-25 feet deep.

Great post Jason very interesting!!

Thanks for the post, Jason…

Soooo…. How many colors did it take to get the SR5 down to “diver depth”? Did the SCUBA guys put up more of a fight than the free diver?

Nice work, though… Hope they find those units incredibly useful. Thanks to them for the service to the community….

Mike

You did not happen to mention to the divers if you see any big walleyes down there let me know something about a fishing contest coming up

Kirt, what the divers told me is that they can only see things that are RIGHT under their hand-held lights. It did sound like there had been a couple close encounters with sturgeon and flatheads in some guys’ experience in the lake.