Bristol Bay’s waters can be a maze of sand bars and hidden channels. And they change every year, with each storm and tide. But the charts that fishermen use to navigate Bristol Bay have remained largely the same. Recently, a long-time Bristol Bay fisherman developed an app to give fishermen more up–to-date options.
It’s not an uncommon sight to see boats high and dry on sand bars, waiting for the tide to turn. Most boats in Bristol Bay use GPS navigation systems based on nautical charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. These charts, in turn, are based on soundings, or depth measurements.
But Bristol Bay fisherman Chris Hager says these maps can’t keep up with the rapid changes in the waterways. "There's been a couple updates on those over the past like 50 years. But typically what you'd look at on any GPS up here, it's a good 15-20 years old. So as the river systems change, everything moves around,” Hager said.
Hager has fished Bristol Bay for 25 years, but off the water he has a background in computer science and IT. He saw folks in other fisheries developing new mapping tools that better reflected changing waterways. And he wanted to bring that technology to Bristol Bay.
“The typical NOAA charts, those are soundings,” Hager said. “What I do [is] I take more modern satellite imagery, and they're all geo referenced. So you can basically drive around on your phone or tablet or something, and you'll show up there and you'll see where you are in reference to what is showing out of the water.”
Hager’s app is called Bristol Maps. It’s based on geo-referenced satellite imagery. This allows users to see where they are in relation to up-to-date imagery of Bristol Bay’s waterways.
The app uses the same high resolution satellite imagery that is often used for precision agriculture. That allows farmers to measure and monitor factors like soil, topography, and crop health on a large scale. Hager says this imagery can also help fishermen navigate waterways and find fish.
By geolocating the imagery, Hager says Bristol Maps’ users can then know where they are within those waterways, and mark waypoints and routes—even offline.
“And with the new systems, you can actually share those waypoints and routes between your groups privately. So if you’ve got a really sweet little honey hole you like to fish in, or a good anchorage – or bad anchorage for that matter – you can make a waypoint and then share that out with your group and you'll be able to pop up on their map,” Hager said.
Hager hopes his mapping tool helps fishermen safely navigate Bristol Bay and steer clear of sandbars and other hazards. Hagar says Bristol Maps had around 520 users this season; one processor also used the app for its tenders.
