MANGALURU: After rolling out a mobile application for smooth transport of cattle in the communally sensitive district, the Dakshina Kannada district administration is now working on a mobile application that will track the movement of fishing vessels going in and out of Mangaluru fishing harbour. The app comes in the wake of inability of the government to ascertain the number of fishing vessels out in the sea during inclement weather conditions.
Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil said the mobile application is in the hardware testing stage. “The idea is to fix a small transponder in every fishing vessel that will respond to the infrared pointer established at Alivebagilu — where the river meets the Arabian sea —through which fishing vessels navigate into the sea. When the fishing boat crosses the infrared pointer at the shore, it will set the trigger which will be recorded and will remain open till the particular fishing vessel returns back to the harbour,” he said.
“We want to create a robust tracking mechanism which doesn’t fail. A dedicated team is working on this app and we are doing hardware testing at present. The mobile app will be rolled out to the fishing community by December,” the DC added.
Though big fishing vessels are being fitted with AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponders to trace their location in the sea, it becomes a problem to ascertain the exact number of fishing vessels out in the sea when inclement weather strikes the coast, the district administration said.