Update README.md

README.md

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----
-license: mit
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+---
+license: mit
+---
+# CFC26 Dataset Card
+
+## Dataset Summary
+
+**CFC26** is a large-scale benchmark dataset for fish detection and counting in underwater ARIS sonar video. Data were collected across 16+ field locations in Alaska, California, Washington, and British Columbia, spanning a wide range of environmental conditions, fish species, and deployment configurations. The dataset is designed to support research in object detection, multi-object tracking, and ecological counting in acoustically challenging underwater settings.
+
+---
+
+## Dataset Details
+
+| Property | Value |
+|---|---|
+| **Task** | Fish detection, multi-object tracking, counting |
+| **Sensor** | ARIS Explorer / ARIS Ranger sonar |
+| **Annotation format** | COCO JSON, MOT |
+| **Number of locations** | 16+ |
+| **License** | MIT |
+| **Splits** | train / val / test (temporally stratified per location) |
+
+---
+
+## Motivation
+
+Monitoring fish passage at rivers and streams is critical for fisheries management and conservation. Manual review of sonar video is labor-intensive and does not scale to the volume of data collected during migration seasons. CFC26 provides large-scale annotated data to support automated fish detection and counting systems that can operate directly on raw ARIS sonar imagery.
+
+---
+
+## Locations
+
+Data were collected at the following field sites:
+
+| Location | Region 
+|---|---|---|
+| Chemainus | British Columbia, Canada | 
+| Dungeness | Washington, USA | 
+| Eel | California, USA |
+| Elwha | Washington, USA | 
+| Kenai-Channel | Alaska, USA
+| Kenai-Leftbank | Alaska, USA 
+| Kenai-Rightbank | Alaska, USA
+| Klamath | California, USA 
+| Mad | California, USA | 
+| Nanaimo | British Columbia, Canada | 
+| Nushagak | Alaska, USA | 
+
+Kenai locations are further stratified by water column stratum and bank position (channel, left bank, right bank), reflecting distinct sonar deployment configurations at that site.
+
+---
+
+## Dataset Structure
+
+### File Layout
+
+```
+{location}/
+└── {clip_name}/
+    └── *.png / *.jpg       # sonar frames
+
+annotations/
+└── {location}/
+    └── {clip_name}.json    # COCO annotation file per clip
+```
+
+### Clip Naming Convention
+
+Image filenames encode clip identity and frame index:
+
+```
+{source}_{YYYY-MM-DD}_{HHMMSS}_{start_frame}_{end_frame}_{frame_index}.jpg
+```
+
+Timestamps in filenames are used for temporal train/val/test assignment.
+
+---
+
+## Annotation Format
+
+Annotations are provided in **COCO JSON** format (primary) and **MOT text** format.
+
+### COCO JSON
+
+Each clip has a corresponding JSON file with the standard COCO structure:
+
+**Image fields:**
+
+| Field | Description |
+|---|---|
+| `id` | Unique image ID |
+| `file_name` | Frame filename |
+| `width`, `height` | Frame dimensions in pixels |
+
+**Annotation fields:**
+
+| Field | Description |
+|---|---|
+| `bbox` | `[x, y, width, height]` in pixels (top-left origin) |
+| `track_id` | Unique fish identity within a clip |
+| `category_id` | Fish category ID |
+| `image_id` | Corresponding frame ID |
+| `attributes.track_id` | Alternative track ID location (location-dependent) |
+
+**Categories:**
+
+| Name | Description |
+|---|---|
+| `FISH` | Confident fish detection |
+
+
+### MOT Format
+
+One row per detection per frame:
+
+```
+frame_id, track_id, left, top, width, height, conf, x, y, z
+```
+
+## Train / Val / Test Splits
+
+Splits are assigned **temporally per location**: clips are ordered chronologically and divided into contiguous train, validation, and test windows. This design evaluates generalization across time within a deployment season — a realistic condition for monitoring applications — rather than random frame-level splits that would inflate performance estimates.
+
+Split boundaries are defined per location in the dataset configuration and reflect natural breakpoints in the recording schedule.
+
+---
+
+## Dataset Statistics
+
+*(To be updated with final counts upon release)*
+
+| | Train | Val | Test | Total |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| Clips | — | — | — | — |
+| Frames | — | — | — | — |
+| Frames with fish | — | — | — | — |
+| Bounding boxes | — | — | — | — |
+| Unique track IDs | — | — | — | — |
+
+---
+
+## Data Collection
+
+Sonar units were deployed at each site and recorded continuously or during active monitoring windows. Frame extraction and clip segmentation were performed as part of pre-processing. Annotations were produced by trained annotators using frame-by-frame bounding box labeling with consistent track ID assignment across frames.
+
+---
+
+## Limitations
+
+- **Class imbalance.** Empty frames (no fish present) constitute a large fraction of the data at most locations. Models must handle significant negative-to-positive imbalance.
+- **Domain shift across locations.** Sonar imagery varies considerably across deployment sites due to differences in water turbidity, fish size, fish density, flow rate, camera angle, and hardware configuration. Models trained on a subset of locations may not generalize without adaptation.
+
+---
+
+## Ethical Considerations
+
+CFC26 contains no personally identifiable information. Data were collected in collaboration with fisheries agencies and organizations. Use of this dataset for automated fish monitoring should be accompanied by appropriate ecological expertise and should not be used as a sole basis for management decisions without validation by domain experts.
+
+---
+
+## Citation
+
+*(Citation will be updated with full author list and proceedings details upon publication.)*
+
+---
+
+## License
+
+CFC26 is released under the [MIT License](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).
+
+---
+
+## Mini Sample
+
+A curated mini version of CFC26 (**CFC26-Mini**) is available for demonstration purposes. It contains 1 clip per split per location with 10 frames per clip (only positive samples). See `CFC26_MINI_DATASET_CARD.md` for details.
+