Now, mobile updates for fishermen at sea

December 26: Leading network infrastructure solutions provider ADC Krone will partner with telecom services provider Tata Indicom to enable fishermen receive updates on weather and information on catching fish in the sea on their mobile phones, the company said Wednesday.

Krone said the initiative has been taken up as a pilot project under the aegis of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation at Veerampattinam in Tamil Nadu and would be followed soon as a commercial service.

"Fishermen will hereafter spend far less time at sea, as they will know before sailing the weather conditions, wave height and wind velocity and direction," the company said in a statement.

Some 5,000 villages on the coast will be able to use the application. The mobile coverage will extend up to six km into the sea.

"The project is aimed at equipping the fishing community with weather knowledge, concentration of fish pools and safety messages. It will also minimise loss of life," Krone managing director Bala Chandran said.

The geographic base of Indian marine fisheries has 8,118-km coastline, 2.02 million sq km of exclusive economic zone, including 0.5 million sq km of continental shelf and 3,937 fishing villages.

There are 1,896 traditional fish landing centres, 33 minor and six major fishing harbours, serving as bases for about 2,08,000 traditional non-motorised craft, 55,000 small-scale beach-landing craft fitted with outboard motors, 51,250 mechanised craft and 180 deep-sea fishing vessels.