For this Professional Spotlight the BioBase team sat down with a biologist at a power plant. They use BioBase to evaluate risk of cooling water intake blockage from aquatic vegetation. This is one of many methods they use ensure abundant cooling water is available for the redundant intake systems. In 2012, invasive zebra mussels invaded the system and paved the way for aquatic vegetation by clearing the water. They map aquatic vegetation during the growing season and use the polygon tool to measure percent area covered and biovolume in the areas of interest. Aquatic vegetation management recommendations are based on this data. Before BioBase they took samples using a rake to determine what species were present and estimate the total biovolume. Now using BioBase they can easily measure biovolume at location with ease.
When asked why they chose to use BioBase they responded, “the value, there are a lot of options out there, most are expensive, but BioBase is not.” Even at a low cost “it still produces very reliable data, BioBase is a high value product.”
When asked what features of BioBase they found most attractive they responded “the polygon tool is the most important feature for me, calculating water volume, biovolume, and more for chemical and manual harvesting and loading it directly into the depth finder makes managing aquatic vegetation easier than ever.” If you are interested in loading BioBase maps directly into your depth finder click here Export BioBase Maps As Charts
BioBase is the central pillar of Navico’s Sustainability Mission so we asked them how does the use of BioBase benefit conservation or what positive impacts will the environment have on your work? “The primary purpose of the lake is cooling water supply; however, the secondary purpose is a public fishery. Biobase helps us understand any potential risk and manage it accordingly. This allows us to leave aquatic vegetation in areas that do not pose any potential risk to the redundant intake systems. They regularly communicate with the State wildlife management agency on treatments and using BioBase maps the sharing of information between agencies is easier than ever. BioBase is always looking to improve and when asked what they wished BioBase could do that it doesn’t now they answered, “I want to integrate autosteering in the polygon to help with chemical treatments”, good news is Navico branded products search, and rescue feature can easily fit inside polygons to create transects for autopilot to follow.
With 7 years of mapping under their belt, they shared how “BioBase is so easy and very intuitive” and will continue to use BioBase wherever aquatic vegetation mapping is needed.
