PARADIP: The use of distress alert transmission system (DATS) in mechanised boats and trawlers has proved meaningless during distress as neither the Marine Police nor the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnel reportedly came to the rescue of local fishermen in two recent mishaps where the vessels caught fire due to technical snag.
Sources said on Sunday, a trawler named ‘Bhagabati’ was engaged in fishing when it caught fire mid-sea due to technical snag. On hearing screams, fishermen in a nearby trawler came and rescued nine persons onboard. The previous day, another trawler also caught fire between Astaranga and Puri possibly due to explosion of gas used for cooking purpose and seven persons were rescued by local fishermen.
It was found that nearly 600 motorised boats are registered with the Fisheries department, 90 per cent of which have complied with safety measures by fitting tracking devices like DATS, Global Positioning System (GPS) and very high frequency sets (VHFS). However, the installations have been rendered meaningless due to non-use of either DATS or GPS and late arrival of marine police or ICG. Many fishermen alleged they used DATS but the ICG rescue team reached late as a result of which they used VHFS to seek immediate intervention of local fishermen in order to survive. In many cases, DATS get damaged too during the mishaps.
President of Odisha Marine Fish Producer Association Srikant Parida informed that in many cases, DATS were not used because of change of staff. Inexperienced fishermen could not use it properly as a result of which ICG team could not reach on time, he said.
Manager of fishing harbour Manoranjan Mohapatra said nearly 503 out of 569 trawlers have been fitted with DATS and other safety measures but these are hardly being used during emergency. Lack of knowledge of its operation along with change of staff are the main causes behind non-use of the system, he added.