A wave rider buoy was installed on the Tharuvaikulam coast here on Thursday to keep fishermen safe from bad weather on marine waters.
The gadget remains afloat at sea and collects data on the marine weather.
The project on location specific forecast was launched by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in association with Research Department of Zoology, Kamaraj College, Tuticorin and M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in the interest of Tuticorin fishermen.
“Fishing is not advisable when conditions are averse to sailing. When there is a forecast of bad weather, the fishermen are exposed to unfamiliar weather conditions with high waves, strong winds and sea surface temperature. Now, with the deployment of this new satellite-based gadget, weather alerts – of any unfamiliar weather – could be received a week ahead,” P. Jeyakumar, Engineer, INCOIS, Hyderabad told The Hindu while demonstrating the use of the floating device.
Since native language was used to communicate to the fishermen through SMS on cell phones, they would be able to react swiftly to save their lives after keeping off sea.
The floating device would measure the data of changing weather conditions through INSAT satellite communication system and send it to a receiving station being maintained at the research department of Kamaraj College.
J. Mohanraj, Principal Investigator, said ‘wave rider buoys are water surface following buoys anchored to the sea bed by means of an elastic mooring.
An accelerometer mounted within the buoy registers the rate at which the buoy is rising or falling as it follows the pattern of waves,” J. Poongodi, Co-Principal Investigator were present.
