Acoustic Point Cloud of Bubble Plumes in the Downstream Approach to Peoria Lock, near Peoria, Illinois, During Testing of an Automated Barge Clearing Deterrent, September 12, 2022

A variety of new technologies are being evaluated to mitigate the spread of invasive carps from the Illinois River to the Great Lakes. In 2022, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey undertook a field-scale interagency study to determine the efficacy of an Automated Barge Clearing Deterrent (ABCD) in flushing live fish away from commercial barge vessels entering Peoria Lock on the Illinois River. The ABCD is a forced air manifold system that is placed at the channel bed to create a longitudinal array of bubble plumes. In support of this study, a multibeam echosounder mapping system (MBMS) with integrated inertial navigation solution (INS) mounted on a manned survey vessel was used [...]