Low-cost Wireless Temperature and Depth Sensor Package for Deployment on Fishing Gear

A low-cost temperature and depth sensor package that utilizes wireless data transmission (satellite, cellular, WIFI) does not currently exist in the market, and would have a broad interest by scientists and the fishing industry deploying instrumentation on commercial fishing gear. Needed features for the temperature depth sensor package include: high accuracy; fast satellite data acquisition and transmission; extended battery life; waterproofing; and ruggedized design. Developing a low-cost system for oceanographic monitoring on commercial fishing gear would open opportunities for cooperative fisheries research and ocean modeling. There is a need to design, test, and make commercially available a low-cost temperature and depth system that can be deployed on commercial fishing gear, wirelessly communicates with onboard computers, and transmits data via satellite, cellular, or WIFI. A secondary goal is to visualize the temperature and depth data collected by the sensors in near real time.