In order to take the benefits of the scientific services to the users through enhancing the awareness and penetration of the ocean information and advisory services, INCOIS has conducted 05 mega awareness campaigns along coastal states of India as well as village level workshops. The mega awareness campaigns on Ocean Information and Advisory Services were conducted at Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh; Veraval in Gujarat; Mumbai in Maharashtra; Digha in West Bengal; and Chennai in Tamil Nadu during July- August, 2023. The Mega awareness campaigns were conducted with state Fisheries Departments, NGOs, related fishery organizations, etc. and catered for the benefit of small and marginal fishermen community for their livelihood and safety. All mega awareness programs had the participation of 200-800 fishermen for each campaign. Eight village level workshops were also conducted during January – March, 2023 at Neendakara, Chettuva, Munambam in Kerala, Murad in Maharashtra, Karaikal in Puducherry and Tuticorin, Poompuhar, Keelakarai in Tamil Nadu.

INCOIS has taken up many scientific initiatives to improve the accuracy of ocean state forecasts such as operationalization of high-resolution Operational Ocean Forecast and Reanalysis System for Indian Ocean, HYCOM-HWRF coupled model for cyclone forecasts, Multi-grid Wavewatch-III for wave modelling and introduced data assimilation and multi ensemble forecasting.

The Ocean State Forecast (OSF) services consists of dynamic information on Wave height, direction, and period (of both wind waves and swell waves), Sea surface currents, astronomical tides, wind speed and direction for next 5 to 7 days. The High Wave/Swell information provides alerts / warnings to the fishermen community thereby helping them in taking informed decisions before venturing into sea. The warning on storm surge and related inundation associated with the cyclones are also issued. Wave surges and rough sea conditions associated with the effect of high period swell waves approaching from southern Indian Ocean and its chances of flooding the coastal regions also are warned.

INCOIS has further customized the OSF services and initiated “Small Vessel Advisory Services (SVAS)” that provides boat-specific safety information for fishermen thereby helping them in avoiding the regions that cause capsizing of the boats. This information is provided to the fishermen community through multiple dissemination platforms such as e-mail, website, mobile application, WhatsApp, telegram channel, mobile applications, multilingual SMS messages, etc. to ensure the timely availability of the information. In addition, partnered with NGOs for further downstream dissemination of the information to all fishermen community.

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, under its flagship scheme “Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)” provides the financial assistance to support the fishermen for potential fishing zone (PFZ) devices, communication and tracking devices like VHF/DAT/NAVIC etc. Besides, a National Rollout Plan for installation of transponders in 1,00,000 fishing boats has also been approved under PMMSY with total outlay of Rs. 364.0 Crore. The transponders are two-way communication, support and monitoring devices developed by ISRO with 100% Indigenous R&D efforts using GSAT -6 Satellite to provide warnings & message dissemination including cyclone warning, weather alerts, location of International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), High Tide alert, PFZ, text messaging, geofence violation monitoring etc. to the fishermen.

The INCOIS launched a mobile application known as “SAMUDRA” (Smart Access to Marine Users for ocean Data Resources and Advisories) for comprehensive information on all ocean related services, useful for both seafarers and the fishing community. The mobile app empowers users with real-time updates and critical alerts on oceanic disasters such as tsunamis, storm surges, high waves, swell surge alerts, etc. 

This information was given by Shri Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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