Benefits derived by the fisherman using potential fishing zone (PFZ) advisories

Abstract

About 7 million people in India are dependent on fishing activity for their livelihood. A reliable and timely short-term forecast on the fish aggregation zones helps them. Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) provides short term forecasts using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) Techniques. Satellite derived Chlorophyll and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) information are the basic inputs for generating this information. Features such as oceanic fronts, meandering patterns, eddies, rings and up-welling areas are identified from the satellite images, transferred to navigational charts and provided as PFZ advisories. This paper describes the advantages resulted due to the usage of PFZ advisories that are disseminated to the fishing community of India. A quantitative analysis of the benefits in terms of net profit fetched due to the reduction in searching time and higher catch and percentage of success in the fishing operations carried out within PFZ and outside PFZ areas is presented.