Coast Guard rescues 10 fishermen off Malpe coast

The Coast Guard headquarters, Karnataka, has rescued 10 fishermen from the IFB sea shell (IND - KL - 04 MM -1372) 100-km west of Malpe, belonging to Kannur district of Kerala.

The boat had been in distress since January 20 due to flooding in the machinery compartment and multiple machineries failure onboard. The Indian Coast Guard Remote Operating Centre (ROS), Mangaluru, received the distress call from the fishing boat at 6.30 pm on January 20.

The ICGS Samar in the area was diverted for rendering assistance. At 9.20 pm on January 21, ICGS Samar located the fishing boat about 100-km west of Malpe, carried out night boarding operations and undertook repairs to stop the ingress of water into the boat. The crew was provided with necessary assistance and fishing boat taken under tow by the ship. The ICGS Samar handed over the boat along with the 10 crew to the deputy director of fisheries, off old Mangaluru port on Monday.

On completion of rescue operation, DIG S S Dasila, Coast Guard Commander, Karnataka, brought out the issue of negligence on the part of the owners of fishing boats by not keeping track of boats that venture into sea in terms of safety and security of crew. The matter is being taken up with state and district administrations to ensure the owners become more responsible and ensure safety and security of crew on board the boats that go into the sea for fishing. The Commander further stated that towing of fishing boats is not, per se, the role of ICG, however in this instance, it was undertaken on a humanitarian ground.

Awareness week

Coast Guard Karnataka is observing 'Coastal Security Awareness Week' as a part of celebrations in the run-up to 41st Indian Coast Guard Day on February 1. Various activities are planned by Coast Guard which include brainstorming sessions, with stakeholders of coastal security mechanism in the state of Karnataka, working out on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as already promulgated to all stakeholders, special Community Interaction Programmes (CIPs) for fisher folk and awareness campaigns on coastal security for local populace and the whole fishing community.

In this process today, 40 personnel of Coastal Security Police were embarked onboard Coast Guard Ships Kasturba Gandhi, Savitribai Phule and hovercraft H-198 based at Mangaluru. All trainees were practically exposed to on-job training at sea from dawn to dusk. They were trained on boarding operations, checking of documents, Search And Rescue (SAR) procedures and operation of life saving equipment.