A web-gis and mobile-based application for a safe ocean for fishers

Abstract

One of the societal outcomes envisaged for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) is a safe ocean where the safety of operations at sea and the coast are ensured. The Indian coast is prone to tropical cyclones, and the recent Ockhi, Gaja, Nilam, and Nivar cyclones devastated coastal Tamil Nadu in southern India, particularly the fishing community. This brought into focus the need to develop tools for the safety of fishermen at sea. A user-friendly application was developed named “Thoondil” (meaning fishing rod in the local language) by the National Centre for Coastal Research and made operational by the Department of Fisheries, Government of Tamil Nadu. It comprises a web-GIS-based dashboard for the state administrators and an android application for the fishermen. The salient features of the mobile application include the compass, weather, rescue plan, offline maps that provide the route to the nearest ports, incidence reporting, weather details, and potential fishing zone. The Thoondil dashboard provides information about the users and travel details, and helps to get information about the fishermen at sea at any point of time. A two-way communication between the administrators and the fishing community is enabled. The system is available in vernacular language with more than 15,000 downloads in a couple of months. Based on user interactions, it has evolved as a pan-India application and currently replicated in Kozhikode, Kerala. The use of the app has reduced risk to the fishing commu-nity, especially during hazards and has also contributed to the resilience of the coastal fishing communities.