Call for plan to make coast safer for fishermen

The first state-level Maritime Search and Rescue (M-SAR) workshop organised at the Indian Coast Guard district headquarters near Panambur beach on Wednesday focussed on an integrated approach to enhance safety of fishermen in the sea.

Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil S inaugurated the workshop, ‘Meenugararu Namma Snehitaru – Fishermen Are Our Friends’.

The officer urged stakeholders to come up with a pin-pointed action plan to help the district administration and the Indian Coast Guard to make the coast safe for the sea farers. “The need of the hour is that all stakeholders work as a team,” he stressed.

Specialists in various fields, who also spoke at the workshop, discussed existing policies and strategies in terms of search and rescue capabilities.

The workshop highlighted indigenous technical tools like ‘Sarat’ - an application available on Google Playstore which is capable of predicting the most probable location. Making the application available easily could make fishing at sea safe for the fishing communities.

DIG S S Dasila, Commander, Coast Guard Karnataka, addressed the participants and acknowledged the contribution of the state and district administration and other stake holders in keeping the coast safe for the seafarers.

“We recognise fishermen as a very powerful asset, because they are being our eyes and ears keep our coasts safe,” said the commander.

The workshop was attended by representatives from NMPT (New Mangalore Port Trust), fishermen associations and others.