Fishermen key to maintaining country's sea security'

Mangalore, June 26: The Fishermen are the best 'eyes and ears' of the country when it comes to keeping a check on terrorism and sea crime, said R K Sharma, Commandant, Coast Guards.

He was speaking at an interactive meet between the Coast Guards and fishermen community at Ullal on Tuesday.

Stating that even if the total man-force of navy, Coast Guards and Coastal Police is put together it cannot match the human resource that the fishing community posseses across the country, Mr. Sharma said that fishermen have a huge role to play in informing security bodies such as the Coast Guards, of any suspicious activity along the coast.

Stating that bio-metric cards and colour coding for boats will be made mandatory in the days to come, he urged the fisherfolk to get themselves updated and implement the new rules accordingly. Each state will be given a colour code which has to be implemented in boats of the respective states so that it is easy to identify the area that the boat belongs to. This will be helpful in curbing illegal activities and sea terror, Mr. Sharma said.

Observing that incidents of merchant vessels hitting smaller boats have been on the rise of late, Mr. Sharma said that there is a need for fishermen to be more alert. “Such vessels have started deviating a bit from their original routes to avoid pirates and in the process accidents between their boats and smaller boats are increasing. Those vessels are huge in size and it is difficult for them to pick small boats in the waves. To ensure their safety, fishermen must be alert and make sure that atleast one of their crew stays awake throughout the night”, he said.

Karnataka Coast Guards will soon have its own aircrafts and hovercrafts as part of its expansion programme, he added.

Distress Alert Transmitter

Coast Guards offcials demonstrated the working of an ISRO made satellite based 'Distress Alert Transmitter' (DAT) before the fishermen. The device would be helpful for fishermen in passing emergency messages to Coast Guards. There are four switches in the device the fisrt one meant for passing emergency message on ship fire or any such mishap, the second one for medical assistance, the third for boat sinking and the fourth one to intimate of a sea accident or cases of drowning of crew etc.

The device was initially being distributed for free but will soon be supplied by the state government at subsidized rates. It covers the areas of Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. A fisherman using this device had alerted the Coast Guards of a terrorist activity on sea and it helped in the cause of national security, Mr. Sharma said.

Working of a life jacket was also demonstrated on the occasion.

Harassment of fishermen

The meet being an interactive meet, a member of the fishermen community raised the issue of Coast Guard officials harassing fishermen in spite of them producing identity cards and other documents. In response, Commandant K L Arun said that in future if fishermen encounter such harassing, they can inform the Coast Guards office and file a complaint by noting down the number of the ship which is clearly visible on every Coast Guard ship.