Missing: Data on sea-going fishermen

KOCHI: Two dreaded events in two weeks off the same coast. Two more fishermen being killed immediately after the ‘Enrica Lexie’ episode has exposed the loopholes in ensuring the safety of fishermen. Still, the Fisheries Department in the state does not have a proper system for collecting and maintaining the data on fishermen going to the sea on a daily basis.In view of 26/11, the coastal security agencies have pointed out the need for bringing in a proper system for the assessment of fishermen and fishing vessels. The Fisheries Department has already begun the registration and licensing of vessels. However, they have no system to find out whether fishing vessels from other states are coming here.“We absolutely do not have any data on such vessels. There are fishing boats coming from Kollam and Kulachal to Ernakulam and vice versa. There are vessels coming from Tamil Nadu. They may not follow any process of registration. Even if we insist on them to follow the radar system, they never do so,” said Fisheries Department Deputy Director E G George Kutty.In Ernakualm district alone there are about 1200-1300 registered fishing boats. About 600-700 vessels go to sea on a regular basis. Each of these boats have a carrying capacity of 5-7 people. Like this, there are about 400 mechanised country crafts (MCC) including, 30 crafts with outboard engine and 90 crafts with inboard engines, each of which can carry at least 30 people. Under such circumstances, it is very difficult to locate those who are on the vessels, the sources said.Coastal security officials also pointed out that most of the fishermen do not follow the guidelines as per the International Maritime Organisation. “Prima facie the incident on Thursday occurred as the fishermen were asleep and were completely in the dark about the merchant vessel. In the night, they will not be able to recognise the presence of another vessel. Also fishing boats make errors in judgement about the size of the merchant vessels, which come with only the navigational light on. Also the fishermen do not make use of the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons issued by the Coast Guard for distress alarm,” said a top coastal security official  in the state.