OLATHE, Kan/PR Newswire — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), today announced its new lineup of 2006 fishfinders, packed with features that will excite both the weekend inland angler and the serious offshore salt water fisherman.

“Garmin’s new line of sonar devices offer a great combination of features that will satisfy just about any boater’s requirements,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing. “These units offer the same value, reliability, and innovation that boaters have come to know from Garmin.”

The new software for the PI44 and PI54 introduces the end users to new functionality. The biggest change is the introduction of a “trawl calculator”. When the trawl is located behind the vessel, this calculator will position it relative to the vessel, and thus provide the user with a real-time scenario on the PI44 or PI54 echogram.

Simrad has also released new versions of the two operator manuals to describe these functions.

Blue Sea Systems, manufacturer of innovative marine electrical products, introduces a new family of battery management panels that expands their current line. These panels provide boat owners with a comprehensive solution to centrally manage DC main power distribution, and they are configurable to suit the specific needs of individual boat owners. Power distribution, switching, and circuit protection are conveniently combined into one panel. Panels have blank slots to accommodate additional circuit breakers in a wide variety of actuation styles—thermal push button and magnetic rockers (raised, flat, and slot reset), and with amperage ratings ranging from 5 to 250 Amperes.

As MAX begins its second year, the family of MAX-powered chart plotters continues to grow. Five new Navman GPS/chart plotters have joined the family of navigation systems developed for the new C-MAP MAX electronic chart platform.This new series of Navman electronics brings the advanced features of MAX to owners of smaller boats, freshwater boats or any vessel where installation space is limited. Navman’s new MAX-compatible TrackFish 6500 takes the GPS/chart plotter/echosounder features of the popular TrackFish 6600 and packages them in a compact unit with a 5″ color display. With its 12-channel WAAS capable GPS receiver, “smart antenna” and 600W dual-frequency echosounder, the compact TrackFish 6500 offers capabilities previously limited to larr, more expensive systems.

Boaters who want the advanced features of MAX electronic charts now have a new choice in high performance, color GPS/chart plotters. Cobra Electronics (NASDAQ: COBR) — best known to mariners for VHF radios, power inverters and land-based equipment like portable car navigators, radar detectors and CB radios — is introducing two new GPS/chart plotters specifically developed for C-MAP’s cutting-edge MAX and MaxLakes™ cartography.