Beginning in 2011, BioBase brought the 3rd dimension of habitat in the aquatic world. BioBase’s EcoSound™ maps not only the mere presence of vegetation, but also the canopy height and creates aquatic plant ABUNDANCE maps of unprecedented detail (Figure 1).
Figure 1. A percent vegetation heat map shows you exactly where vegetation is most dense and helps target management (e.g., invasive species) or protection (seagrass) depending on the environment and circumstance
We’ve spent thousands of words in these pages and presentations on the road extolling the importance of measuring and monitoring aquatic plant abundance to further the goals of aquatic habitat conservation. We place emphasis on the word “abundance” because it drives habitat; it drives water quality dynamics. But simply existing carries great importance as well. So while abundance is critical to know for population viability and ecosystem models, knowing whether a species is simply occupying a space regardless of its abundance is also tremendously important.
Managing a lake or pond rarely requires the same action everywhere. Aquatic vegetation may be concentrated in one bay, fish may be using a specific depth range, or a proposed herbicide treatment may only cover a small portion of the water body. Find out more by using the BioBase Polygon Tool.
The BioBase Polygon Tool helps managers move beyond whole-lake averages by analyzing clearly defined areas of interest. By drawing a custom polygon on a BioBase map, users can generate statistics for a specific treatment zone, habitat area, fish survey location, or other management boundary.
Cast. Collect. Process. BioBase now processes Deeper sonar data. A streamlined way to pull Deeper sonar ball data into BioBase for pond inventories and hard-to-access waterbodies.
BioBase map processed from Deeper data.Hyposgraphic curves or water volume storage as a function of area and depth are created automatically with every Deeper upload (user must have an EcoSound Habitat+ subscription to access the report feature). See the report here.
BioBase compatibility with Deeper gives engineering firms, public works departments, municipalities, lake management companies and other organizations another way to inventory ponds and capture bathymetry in sites that are too small, shallow, inaccessible, or unsafe for traditional boat-based surveys.
Now the process is simple: collect with the Deeper sonar ball, export the Deeper CSV data from the free Fish Deeper App, and process it through BioBase without any additional manipulation for fast, decision-ready pond mapping outputs.
Use Deeper for portable sonar collection from shore, stormwater banks, easements, small craft, or other access-limited areas.Export the Deeper CSV data and bring it straight into BioBase for streamlined pond inventory outputs.
Cast: Cast the Deeper sonar ball into shallow, small, or hard-to-access ponds.
Collect: Reel in the Deeper ball and export the CSV data from your scan.
Process: Process the Deeper CSV directly in BioBase for clean mapping outputs.
Great fit for:
Pond inventory projects for engineering firms
Public works and municipal stormwater programs
Organizations managing multiple ponds, basins, or small waterbodies
Sites that are inaccessible to boats or unsafe for traditional surveys like sewage lagoons, acid mine pits, fly ash pits, oil and gas holding ponds
Teams that need fast, streamlined data products for planning and reporting
Already collecting with Deeper? If you aren’t already a registered BioBaser, sign up at BioBasemaps.com, request a free trial and upload your Deeper data and see the fast mapping magic!
Lowrance® Sonar and Displays are powerful devices for both fishing and BioBase™ Mapping. Users have many settings that allows them to customize their screen views, data overlays, and sonar/sounder settings. Little do users know there is an overlooked feature called the Settings Database that allows you to back up these settings and restore them should your device become corrupted or if you want to transfer them on a different device. For BioBase mapping, we recommend special settings found in our QuickStart Guide that can be adjusted manually by users as detailed below. Or, just simply download the settings file here and import into your Lowrance (just as a good practice, back up your current settings if you’d like to revert to your old settings after uploading the BioBase settings file .set)
In the 14+ years BioBase has been in service, we’ve seen our share of sonar logs and maps (both good and bad). We’ve learned some things and improved back-end processes that have resulted in you getting better maps processed faster. But we’ve also learned from you, our users, about strategies and techniques that result in better outcomes, and what to avoid. Here are eight of those lessons learned:
1. Good transducer installation is critical
You could be the most experienced hydrographer in the world and execute the perfect survey design, but your map will be mostly worthless if your transducer is not securely attached to your boat or is slanted at an angle. We’ve devoted a fair amount to this topic in previous blogs, so we won’t dwell on it here. The two key take aways are: 1) ensure the transducer is installed straight in all directions and leveled keeping in mind the slant of the hull in the water fully loaded. Replicate that tilt with your tongue jack when installing your transducer. 2) Install the transducer where the flow of water is smooth and laminar over the transducer face at all speeds. If you lose your transducer signal as the boat speeds up, you probably have an issue with cavitation (water turbulence) around the transducer face. Adjust the transducer height (sometimes only a very small amount) or move it away from rivets or anything else near the hull that could cause cavitation. One of the benefits of working with consumer devices like Lowrance and Simrad is that there is a wealth of online self-help resources and service centers that can help you install your transducer correctly. A simple Google Search “Lowrance Transducer Installation” will turn up all the resources you need. This one from Lowrance is one of our favorites. If you have multiple survey boats and want to make your unit portable, I strongly recommend purchasing and installing multiple transducers on all of your boats rather than a portable transducer bracket. In the grand scheme of things, consumer-sonar transducers are cheap and the consistent results you will get from a firmly mounted transducer is worth it!
Figure 1. Watch for warning signs of a slanted transducer (alternating thickness of slopes, slanted vs horizontal fish arches)
Welcome back to Mapping is Managing! In this part of the series, we’re talking about how mapping helps paint a clearer picture of water quality — especially when it’s paired with other monitoring data.
Seeing Water Quality Through Maps
Water quality isn’t just a number — it’s how conditions vary across a lake or pond. Mapping brings that variability to life. When you map things like depth, aquatic vegetation, and underwater features, you begin to see where conditions are healthier and where they might be changing.
BioBase is excited to announce the release of a new “Easy Button” for designing hydroacoustic (sonar) mapping surveys. The initial release of our Survey Toolkit Transect creator includes an automated transect creator based on basic information you provide about your waterbody, transect spacing, and orientation. The toolkit provides a .gpx route file compatible with any brand GPS chartplotter for navigation.
BioBase software automates things, and water volume analysis was next on our list. Accurate water volume estimation is a foundational requirement for lake, pond, reservoir, and stormwater management, hydropower operations, sedimentation studies, and regulatory reporting. Until now, it was a complicated job of manual calculations left to civil engineers. As a result, despite its importance, everyday practitioners have been relegated to either using curves drawn on yellowing paper from the 1970’s or just “ballparking” water volume from some spot measurements and crude math. Not anymore!
BioBase now automates this process by generating hypsographic (otherwise known as hypsometric) water volume analyses for every upload and merged survey. These analyses quantify water volume as a function of depth, producing both visual and tabular outputs that are immediately usable for technical analysis.
With BioBase, we continue to make the process of creating aquatic maps faster and better and deliver data to practitioners that will make them better at their craft. A better lake manager, means better outcomes for clients/stakeholders and conservation. Here, we focus on our new Polygon Edit feature.
We’ve improved the process of creating polygons on user maps that allows them to analyze sections of a map and extract important information for research and management. The polygon feature is one of our most popular features used over a thousand times a year by BioBase users to calculate water volumes for herbicide treatments, dredge areas, sizing aeration systems, quantifying fish aggregations, etc.
First, for new comers to BioBase, review the basics of the polygon feature in the EcoSound User Manual found on our Support Resources page or watch a quick how to video.
Since the launch of EcoFish™ in May 2025, we’ve focused primarily on how much the product can help Fisheries Researchers and Managers understand more about the critters they are charged with managing, especially how many fish are where and how are they relating to habitat. Well, in addition to managing the fish and habitat in private ponds, managers can also help their clients and guests find and catch more fish with BioBase tools. Specifically, our newly enhanced waypoint feature coupled with the EcoFish layer and Lowrance®/Simrad® Chart Export tool can help put anglers on fish!
Right click on the Fish Abundance layer over fish congregations and create a waypoint. Make some notes about the waypointYou can view and edit details about waypoints and upload or download waypoints as csv or gpx from or to your chartplotter (any brand)View and share information about the fish data in the automated reports. In order to get the waypoints into the report, just reprocess the report after adding waypoints (Tools – Trip Reprocessing). These reports can be shared with anyone with the link.Export Depth, Vegetation, and Bottom Hardness layers as Chart file (AT5) formatted for Lowrance or Simrad chartplotters.Import the waypoint gpx file downloaded from BioBase to a MicroSD card. Also extract the folder of AT5 files and add to the card. View the custom made contour and vegetation maps along with the fish waypoints on your Lowrance and Simrad while you fish
