Hey wildlabers!

I'm trying to come with a way to detect artisanal gillnets in the Mekong river – the river dolphins can’t see them and get stuck in them. There have been some remote sensing surveys with active radar that can detect surface nets due to water texture...but those were for open ocean and aren't the right resolution for our study area.

I am not sure it will work by drone because they can be hidden underwater (apparently no buoys – or if they do have buoys they might be for other kinds of nets, or boat buoys and things that aren’t gillnets), and the water is turbid.

Is there any underwater drone you could think that might work, or an underwater sensor (sonar?) that could detect a gillnet – without bothering our dear dolphins?

any ideas would be very appreciated!