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Indian Coast Guard in Karnataka is planning to distribute around 80 distress alert transmitters (DATs) to fishermen in three districts of coastal Karnataka.
In an informal chat with presspersons on the sidelines of a function to distribute DATs in Mangalore on Monday, Mr R.K. Sharma, Operations Officer, Coast Guard, Karnataka, said that Coast Guard is planning to distribute around 80 DATs in three coastal districts of Karnataka.
Of them, 30 DATs were presented in Mangalore on Monday. The remaining 20 DATs will be distributed in Malpe of Udupi district and 30 in Karwar of Uttara Kannada district this year.
Indian Coast Guard has been distributing DATs for the past five years, he said.
Stating that DAT has been developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he said this instrument on the boat helps the fishermen to convey any distress or emergency situation to the Coast Guard authorities immediately.
There are buttons for different situations such as fire on boat, medical emergency and sinking of the boat.
He said that Coast Guard gets more number of distress calls during the monsoon months from June to September.
Mr Suresh Kumar Ullal, Deputy Director, Department of Fisheries, Karnataka, said that the GPS (global positioning system) in DAT provides latitude and longitude of the fishing boat in distress.
The transmitter conveys the information to the Coast Guard authorities through the satellite, he said.
Group fishing advised
Asked if the number of DATs distributed to fishermen enough to meet the emergency situation as there are more than 7,000 fishing boats along the coast, Mr Sharma said both the Coast Guard and the Fisheries Department suggest the fishermen to go in for group fishing.
If fishermen do group fishing and one of the boats is in difficulty, then that particular boat can be located with the DAT on the other boat.
“In an ideal situation, everyone should have DAT. If they do not have then we advise them to go in for group fishing,” he said.
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