Fishfinders
A fishfinder is a type of fathometer, both being specialized types of echo sounding systems, a type of Active SONAR. ('Sounding' is the measurement of water depth, a historical nautical term of very long usage.) The fishfinder uses active sonar to detect fish and 'the bottom' and displays them on a graphical display device, generally a LCD or CRT screen.
In contrast, the modern fathometer (from fathom plus meter, as in 'to measure') is designed specifically to show depth, so may use only a digital display (useless for fish finding) instead of a graphical display, and frequently will have some means of making a permanent recording of soundings (which are merely shown and subsequently electronically discarded in common sporting fishfinder technology) and are always principally instruments of navigation and safety.
The distinction is in their main purpose and hence in the features given the system. Both work the same way, and use similar frequencies, and, display type permitting, both can show fish and the bottom. Thus today, both have merged, especially with the advent of computer interfaced multipurpose fishfinders combining GPS technology, digital chart-plotting, perhaps radar and electronic compass displays in the same affordable sporting unit.
Early sporting Fathometers for recreational boating used a rotating light at the edge of a circle which then flashed 'synchronized in time' with the received echo (corresponding to depth); these also gave a small flickering flash for echos off of fish. They did nothing to display the trend of the bottom depth over time, nor anything about bottom structure. They operated strictly in a 'snapshot mode', as do the cheap digital fathometers of today. They were hardly ideal in a wave tossed small craft or in bright light, but they were good for holding the boat in the safe channel, assuming one could actually see the light.
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