NEKTOFORM is a web-based platform for extracting, exploring, and validating acoustic features (fish schools and krill swarms) from large-scale echosounder datasets. It is designed for real survey data – including noise and variable data quality – providing a consistent workflow for turning complex acoustic signals into analysis-ready outputs.

NEKTOFORM processes echosounder data through a structured workflow comprising quality filtering, feature detection, and feature-level summarisation. It identifies spatially connected features such as fish schools, krill swarms, and scattering layers using established methods, while enabling users to interactively adjust parameters, inspect results, and refine outputs. The platform is designed to support a wide range of applications, from operational fisheries workflows to ecological research and environmental monitoring.

The NEKTOFORM dashboard showing interactive extraction and review of acoustic features, combining echogram visualisation, spatial context, and feature-level metrics within a single workflow.

Applications and use cases

• Fisheries workflows: extract biomass, stock indicators, and survey summaries from processed datasets.
• Store and analyse processed data products through private datasets for ongoing monitoring.
• Prepare inputs for downstream modelling, stock assessment, and decision support.
• Quantify spatial and temporal patterns across surveys and regions.
• Analyse krill, fish, and pelagic ecosystem structure.
• Link acoustic features to predator observations or tracking data.
• Integrate acoustic outputs with environmental datasets (e.g. temperature, light, oxygen).
• Support conservation monitoring and long-term ecosystem assessment.

NEKTOFORM is designed to support both validation and interpretation of acoustic outputs through transparent, reproducible processing workflows. Data are initially processed using industry-standard tools such as Echoview, ensuring compatibility with established acoustic methods.

From this point, NEKTOFORM provides an interactive environment where users can apply filtering, extract features, and refine outputs within a consistent workflow. Processing states allow complete configurations — including filtering, extraction settings, and feature exclusions — to be saved, shared, and reapplied across users and datasets.

The platform explicitly quantifies key data-quality challenges, including attenuation, vessel speed effects, seabed interference, and feature-level noise. These are handled through a combination of filtering and feature-level flags, enabling users to distinguish between clear artefacts and lower-confidence detections without removing them prematurely.

Rather than treating processing as a black box, users can inspect and adjust each stage, supporting confidence in both the workflow and the results. Derived metrics such as biomass and NASC can then be explored across transects, time, and environmental conditions.

Outputs can be compared against reference datasets where available, and expected ecological patterns — such as strong diel variation — can be identified quickly. This combination of transparent processing, reproducible workflows, and structured outputs ensures results are both reliable and meaningful for downstream analysis.

NEKTOFORM is designed to support both research and operational workflows through flexible access options. Public access is typically suited to researchers and analysts working with curated public datasets, enabling rapid exploration and analysis without the need to process raw data. Private access is designed for organisations working with their own survey data, supporting secure storage, consistent processing, and integration into ongoing monitoring, modelling, and decision-support workflows.

Explore curated datasets through the platform, enabling immediate analysis without the need for raw data processing.

Upload and analyse your own datasets within a secure environment, using the same workflow for consistent, scalable analysis.

Get in touch to request demo access or discuss how NEKTOFORM can support your data, workflows, and analytical pipelines.