Mangaluru: The Dakshina Kannada district administration is now working on a mobile application to track the movement of fishing vessels going in and out of the Mangaluru fishing harbour. The district administration came up with this idea due to the inability of the government to ascertain the exact number of fishing vessels out at sea during inclement weather conditions.
It can be noted that the district administration had recently planned to design a mobile application for the smooth transport of cattle in the communally sensitive district. This idea was rolled out when there were a series of cattle thefts reported in the district and there was a possibility of communal violence due to such incidents.
Now, following the tragic incident of the Suvarna Thribhuja, whose crew of seven fishermen are still missing, the district administration has planned to design a separate mobile application to track the movement of fishing vessels moving through the harbour.
The idea is to fix a small transponder in every fishing vessel that will respond to the infrared pointer established at Alivebagilu – where the river meets the Arabian sea through which fishing vessels move into the sea. When the fishing boat crosses the infrared pointer at the shore, it will set the trigger off and this will be recorded and remain open till the particular fishing vessel returns to the harbour.
A dedicated team is working on this app which is set to be rolled out to the fishing community by December, Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil informed.
