Panaji: Researchers are developing a high- tech system to enable fishermen to get the ocean forecast much in advance so as to save their lives and property at sea.
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), under its supra-institutional project (SIP), is putting in place a new prediction system for the Indian coast, a senior NIO scientist told reporters.
The project, funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), envisages long-term measurement of climatic and wind variations along the coast, he said.
Goa-based NIO said the rudimentary aim of the plan is to enable the fishermen to know "how it is going to be out there when they will be at sea."
About 25 per cent of India's population resides in the coastal zone. The activities of these people vary from traditional fishing to high-tech oil and gas exploration in the 2 million sq km of Indian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the NIO website stated.
"These communities, irrespective of their level of technology, would like to know about ocean forecast.
Providing such information demands the existence of a coastal environmental prediction system," it said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, October 08, 2009, 14:19