Fishermen along the 7,516 km long Indian coastline are in for a bonanza as the  scientists and engineers of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) at Hyderabad have come out with a state-of-the-art instrument that gives out a plethora of real time information about the oceans and sea surrounding the peninsular region.

Though the INCOIS, functioning under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, have been coming out with innovative products for the benefit of the fishermen community  like Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) where there would be aggregation of fish catch which helped in saving precious fuel as well as time spent in the sea, the data and real time information eluded the fishers once they crossed the distance of 10 to 12 km from the shore.

This is because the fishermen usually travel up to 300 nautical miles and beyond to conduct multiday fishing operations. Fishermen along the Tamil Nadu and Kerala coasts had told The Pioneer that each fishing operation means three to four weeks stay in the sea and beyond the reach of tele communication systems. “Once we cross the 10 km distance from the shore, we go incommunicado as mobile phones and high frequency radios go off ,” said Jayapalayan, a marine engineer-turned-fishermen activist based in Chennai.

This handicap came in the way in disseminating the information about the Ockhi cyclone (November/December, 2017), when fishermen had gone deep sea fishing before the onset of the cyclone. “We could not inform them about the developing cyclone. This communication gap resulted in loss of life, serious injuries to those rescued and severe damages to fishing boats and fishing gear,” said TM Balakrishnan, senior scientist , INCOIS, who lead the team of researchers in developing a foolproof mechanism to disseminate information about ocean state forecasts, high wave alerts, tsunami and high wave surges even to fishermen in high seas.

Thanks to the collaborative research and development initiative by INCOIS and the Airport Authority of India, fishermen would start getting the services of Gemini. It has nothing to do with the zodiac sign as well as astrology because the term stands for the third astrological sign as per the Hindu system of astrology. Readers are aware of GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation ) Satellite System through which INCOIS used to transmit details about PFZ and other ocean state conditions for those who are dependent on ocean for their livelihood.  

GAGAN system consists of three geosynchronous satellites (GSAT-8, GSAT-10 and GSAT-15).  GAGAN foot-print covers the entire Indian Ocean round the clock. “To receive the messages transmitted through the GAGAN satellites, INCOIS together with AAI developed a low-cost GAGAN system-enabled GEMINI (GAGAN Enabled Mariner's Instrument for Navigation and Information) device and electronically designed and manufactured by a private industry M/S Acord, Bangalore under  Make in India Program,” Dr Balakrishnan told The Pioneer.

He explained that the GEMINI device receives and transfers the data received from GAGAN to a mobile through Bluetooth communication.“A mobile application developed by INCOIS decodes and displays the information in nine regional languages,” said Dr Balakrishnan. Fishermen will start getting details about Potential Fishing Zones three days in advance and this would give them enough time and space to set sail for the catch well in advance.