Patent ID: 8879359

Claim:
A method of determining location coordinates for an underwater object, comprising the steps of: causing, using a processor, a sonar transducer to transmit a sonar beam, the sonar transducer being mounted on a rotatable member; receiving, at the processor, a direction heading from a compass positioned in line with a pointing direction of the sonar transducer; causing, using the processor, the sonar beam to scan an underwater area by rotating the sonar transducer 360 degrees relative to the pointing direction; receiving, at the processor, sonar information from the sonar transducer, the sonar information identifying a plurality of underwater objects and a distance between at least one of the plurality of underwater objects and the sonar transducer; receiving, at the processor, a current position of the sonar transducer; calculating, using the processor, a set of location coordinates for the at least one of the plurality of underwater objects using the distance, the current position, and the direction heading; and storing, using the processor, the set of location coordinates for the at least one of the plurality of underwater objects in a memory.