more-in Sagara, an android application developed by the Fisheries Department and National Informatics Centre (NIC), will soon feature the details of around 20,000 registered fishermen in Kozhikode district. Data collection is going on in six centres to update the app which was developed under the Digital Kerala initiative for ensuring fishermen’s safety and their proper technological linkage with government entities for receiving up-to-date information on weather changes. The team entrusted with the task is primarily recording fishermen’s name, language, phone numbers, age, nature of their job, and details about their vessels. It will be later fed into a special software named Realcraft which can be accessed by the State-level technical wing to get the required data for updating Sagara. “The mobile application will support multiple languages and its updated version will be ready on completion of the ongoing data collection in various parts of the State. Monitoring of fishing vessels and real-time tracking of fishermen at work will be possible after the launch of the full-fledged version,” says Fisheries Deputy Director T.M. Mariam Hazeena. The collected data will be linked to a centralised communication system which will facilitate the timely dissemination of safety alerts, she adds. Safe app In Kozhikode district, details of all the 5,306 registered fishing boats, including mechanised, non-mechanised and country boats, will be added to the new application. Though some of the fishers and boat owners are reportedly disinclined to cooperate with the project out of their ignorance about the drive, Fisheries Department officials make it clear that they will go ahead with the project as it is clearly a matter of improving fishers’ safety. There will also be safety features to protect confidential information. With the launch of the updated version, even fishing boat owners will be able to get real-time status of their vessels and crew in the sea. For Fisheries Department authorities, data on a common electronic communication platform will help coordinate emergency communications during crisis times and control the flow of authentic information from a common console. Linkage of all the existing satellite-based technologies that guide fishers when and where to fish for the best results too will be possible later. Possibilities of integrating all the existing services from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and India Meteorological Department too are being explored in consultation with the Indian Space Research Organisation. At present, the basic version of the application is available for free download in the Google Play Store and can be logged in using the registered mobile number.

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