Kongsberg and Viam have expanded their partnership to enhance commercial fishing catches through intelligent automation of fishing sonars.
The partners have formally extended their collaboration to deploy Sonar AI, a virtual sonar operator designed for integration with Simrad fishing sonars, including the newly introduced SY60.
”This partnership allows us to bring our Simrad by Kongsberg customers the world’s first AI sonar operator for omnidirectional sonars. We’re moving beyond traditional sonar by embedding AI intelligence directly into our system,” says Martin Tollefsen, product manager, fish finding, Kongsberg Discovery.
”The virtual sonar operator automatically interprets data and highlights actionable targets in real time. This transforms sonars from passive tools to active decision-making support systems, a meaningful step forward in the industry overall.”
Demand for AI
The move reflects increasing demand for artificial intelligence in commercial fishing, where operators are seeking greater efficiency, accuracy and data-driven insights.
By embedding AI directly into fishing sonars, the solution aims to transform how crews detect and respond to underwater targets in real time.
Mr Tollefsen says that captains have a huge number of tasks and responsibilities onboard to complete. This means they can’t monitor the sonar screen nonstop.
”The great thing about Sonar AI on the new SY60 is that if a captain’s eyes are elsewhere, it can drop an event marker as well as give an audio alert to notify the captain of targets of interest,” he says.
Sonar AI continuously monitors sonar data streams, automatically detecting fish and alerting captains and crews the moment targets appear.
The system triggers an audio cue for immediate action, reducing the need for constant manual observation while improving responsiveness onboard.
In addition, the technology records fishing activity over time, enabling analysis of historical data to support more informed and predictive fish-finding strategies.
The solution is compatible with Kongsberg’s Simrad SY60, a high-performance fishing sonar engineered for improved detection, target separation and operational reliability.
By combining advanced fishing sonars with artificial intelligence, Kongsberg and Viam are positioning Sonar AI as a key enabler of smarter, more efficient commercial fishing operations, supporting both productivity gains and more sustainable fishing practices.
