Continuous, continental-shelf-scale monitoring of fish populations and behavior

This invention describes a system for continuously monitoring fish populations and their behavior across vast ocean areas, like continental shelves. It works by sending out specific acoustic signals that travel long distances through the water, using the ocean's natural ability to act like a sound channel. These signals are designed to bounce off fish in a particular way, and the system then listens for the returning echoes to understand what the fish are doing. The claims specifically describe generating horizontally directed, azimuthally uniform acoustic signals that travel in trapped modes within geophysical features acting as a waveguide, causing fish to scatter sound omnidirectionally.