Kerala: Fishermen demand VHF GPS radios

Kochi: With many fishing boats getting “untraceable” during passage of cyclone ‘Ockhi’, the fishing community now wants government agencies to provide them with a seamless VHF radio communication system fitted with GPS receiver in the fishing crafts. “There should be some effective mechanism to trace the location of the fishing boats upon emergencies and also to warn them of dangers. Many of the 610 boats which went into sea for fishing just before the cyclone remained untraceable giving anxious moments. We’ll request the government agencies to equip the vessels with the VHF set or set up a Vessel Monitoring System similar to that put in place by the Maharastra government,” said Charles George, president of Kerala Matsya Thozhilali Aikyavedi.

A workshop for the fishermen will be held in Kochi on December 15 in which the necessity of such gadgets will be presented to the fishermen. “Most of the fishing boats sailing off from Kochi proceeds all the way to Oman (towards North) or near Diego Garcia (South) looking for good catches. The contact with them will be lost hours after they set off for the sea,” he said. Last year, the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) had provided 180 AIS (Automatic Identification System used mainly in ships to determine identification, position, course and speed) to fishing boats in Kochi but the gadgets were taken back after six month, George said.