The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Call to fix guidance device on all fishing vessels

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Thursday, Jun 23, 2011
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Call to fix guidance device on all fishing vessels

Special Correspondent

It deactivates the engine once the boat crosses the maritime border

St. Joseph Engineering College, Chennai, conceptualised the device: AIFI president
Fishermen often unknowingly cross the border leading to disputes between countries

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Association of Indian Fishery Industries (AIFI) has asked the government to introduce maritime border indicator (MBI) device in all fishing vessels to avoid disputes with neighbouring countries.

Very often, fishermen are found crossing their maritime boundaries and fishing in the waters of their neighbouring countries. This is leading to constant disputes between the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka in the South. Similar is the situation between fishermen of West Bengal and Bangladesh in the North East. This trespass of the maritime borders cannot be ruled out, most of the time, as they cannot be visualised by the fishermen, arise, AIFI president Y.G.K. Murty told The Hindu on Tuesday. To address this perennial problem, the MBI was conceptualised recently by St. Joseph Engineering College, Chennai. Once the MBI is installed on a fishing boat, it uses the GPS to triangulate the position of the fishing boat. The International Maritime Border is programmed into the micro controller, which forms part of the MBI. Dr. Murty said when the fishing boat enters the danger zone, which is 0.5 km from the maritime border, the MBI generates a beep sound so that the fishermen will be alerted and they can retreat. If the fishermen ignore the alarm signal and proceed still further and when the fishing boat reaches the maritime border, the fuel cut-off mechanism gets activated and stops the main engine of the fishing boat so that it will not cross the border.

Once the main engine of the boat gets deactivated, the crew of the boat can press an emergency button, which will allow the main engine to restart so that the boat could be retreated from the border. This emergency button could, however, be functional only once while in the danger zone. A prototype of the MBI was demonstrated successfully in Chennai. Dr. Murty said the MBI device was less expensive. It costs Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 2,500 per piece. “It needs full support from the government and the authorities concerned,” he said.

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