The Southeast Regional Acoustics Consortium (SEAC) is a working group that brings together academic institutions, federal and regional fisheries and environmental management agencies, and private industry that conduct acoustics research in the coastal environments of the U.S. from North Carolina to Texas and the U.S. Caribbean.
About SEAC
Active acoustics (i.e., fisheries sonar, echosounders) are integral to research and management of fishery stocks in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and New England. Underwater acoustic sensors are also being deployed as part of integrated ocean observatories and energy development platforms (e.g., tidal and wind power facilities) in the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Applications of active acoustics are less developed in the Southeast United States, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The Southeast Regional Acoustics Consortium brings together stakeholders from academia, government and industry to advance this field.
Objectives
- To inventory activities, interest, expertise, and assets related to active acoustics
- To inform regional managers and science leads on the state of the science and emerging acoustic technologies
- To identify data gaps and management needs and the potential to fill those gaps using acoustic technologies
- To encourage education and training through academic and research opportunities
The 2022 SEAC Workshop will be held at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 11-13.
Workshops & Reports
- 2020 SEAC Workshop
The 2020 SEAC Workshop and Forum was held at the Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 2-4.
The goal of SEAC workshops is to grow a network of experts, practitioners and data users to advance the use of acoustic technologies to address fisheries and ecosystem management challenges in the Southeast and Gulf continental shelf and US Caribbean.
As with previous workshops, we were striving for a registration-free meeting and seeking contributions from agencies and partners to defray costs to participants. Invitations and calls for presentations were sent early in 2020. The workshop included formal presentations and informal discussion and demonstration of emerging sonar and passive acoustic sensors. The workshop also coordinated training sessions for acoustic data processing by Echoview and other vendors.
You can download the workshop agenda or get in touch with the planning team.
The workshop planning team included:
- Luke McEachron (Florida FWRI)
- Chris Taylor (NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science)
- Kevin Boswell (Florida International University)
