Fitting your business' boats with the proper marine electronics is essential to ensuring efficiency, accuracy and safety on the water. Fishing, transport and any other commercial activity on water must have certain equipment before providing service.

Marine electronics range from fishing electronics, such as depth and fish finders, to standard boat equipment such as GPS systems and autopilots. Also, keep your business' boats safe and user-friendly with radios and working dashboard instruments. Consider the following when making your marine electronics purchases:

1. Depth and fish finders track the location of everything below your boat.

2. GPS, radar, autopilots and dashboard instruments are essential marine electronics.

3. Marine radios ensure good communication between units.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Detect water levels with marine electronics for depth finding

Hand-held depth finders are useful marine electronics for fishing businesses and sellers of boat supplies. A depth finder uses sonar to transmit an echo, which bounces the floor of a body of water to give its approximate depth. They are easy to carry and usable inside a boat, through ice or even underwater to be sure you don't run aground.

I recommend: Buy a hand-held depth finder from the marine electronics provider Landfall Navigation or Red Oaks Trading.

Add the convenience of fish finders to your business' marine electronics repertoire

Fish finders function similarly to depth finders, except they search for disruptions in the echo which indicate movement underwater. Sonar cannot determine the type of fish it detects, but by observing the fish behavior you can estimate whether you should expend energy on catching them. Make commercial fishing easier than ever with fish finders.

I recommend: Get Humminbird fish finder equipment from BestFishFinder.com or a Garmin unit from Fish Finder City.

Navigate accurately with Radar and GPS marine electronics

Radar and GPS are staple products of marine electronics. For navigation on open water, no modern technology beats these devices. Purchasing them makes accurate tracking of your current location simple.

I recommend: Find marine electronics - the marine GPS/fish finder combo unit - at Saltys Marine. Raymarine is also a marine electronics provider of marine radar systems.

Install an autopilot or replace your business' boats' marine electronics instrument panel

Autopilot marine electronics units allow you to navigate without actually steering, which is highly useful for long-distance travel on open waters. Also, your boats' instruments may give out as your boats age, so be sure to replace faulty instruments to avoid safety hazards.

I recommend: Marine Wholesales and Nautic Expo have selections of marine autopilot systems. See Ritz Interactive for marine electronics information and listings on boat instruments such as temperature gauges and speedometers.

Communicate properly with marine electronics radio units

Radio marine electronics units ease communication between boats, but more importantly, they can save lives if a boat is in distress. Decide whether you want hand-held or built-in models which connect directly to your boat's audio system.

I recommend: Buy hand-held radio units from Icom America or check the marine electronics list of built-in models from Coast to Coast Electronics.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Autopilot marine electronics units have maximum functional boat lengths and displacements for use. Check your boat beforehand to ensure it meets the requirements.