Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is carrying out research activities with Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based data driven modelling for generating species specific Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisors for commercial important fish species such as sardine, mackerel and hilsa.
The institute, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has been issuing daily bulletins for fishermen across coastal States with its PFZ advisories where the probable location of the fish is indicated saving money, fuel and time in their work. Tuna fish species specific information advisory is already being issued, said group director T. M. Balakrishnan Nair.
3D-advisory
Tuna fish advisory is being made through telemetry services and 3D-advisory with details of precise maximum fishing depth where the species is available with details of the longitude and latitude. Tuna fishing in the seas is still in its nascent stage here but the potential is said to be huge or about 2.13 lakh tonnes. This has made Marine Products Exports and Development Authority (MPEDA) to request INCOIS to develop an advisory system similar to the PFA.
The MPEDA is said to have begun a scheme for assisting the conversion of existing fishing vessels to tuna long-liners for augmenting the production of oceanic tuna. INCOIS, making use of the geo-referenced tuna catch details and remote sensing data products, began experimental Tuna Fishery Advisories and disseminated it to selected user groups, explained the senior scientist.
Based on the users feedback, these experimental advisories have been operationalised in the last few years using satellite derived parameters of sea surface temperature, chlorophyll and water clarity about the potential ocean sites where the tuna fish species are available, he said.
Since tuna is a highly migratory and commercially important species, a project on the habitat preferences and migration routes of the species in the Indian Ocean was taken up with the help of the satellite data and in collaboration with national fisheries institutes. The advisories are now being sent to the tuna long-liners through the website (WebGIS), said Dr. Nair.
Potential Fish Advisories are being issued daily in eight coastal languages along with English and Hindi catering to about nine lakh fishermen. Economic benefits out of these advisories is quite high in in terms of fuel saved, additional profit in the hands of the fishermen community per boat and less carbon emission, said INCOIS director T. Srinivasa Kumar.
The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute had estimated that even with 15% adoption by the users community, about 9 lakh litres of diesel is saved translating to ₹4.68 crore and less green house gas emissions to the tune of 2,412 tonnes, he added.
