Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed an improvised Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) with advanced capabilities and features for the fishermen at sea to send emergency messages from fishing boats. The first version of DAT has been operational since 2010, using which messages were sent through a communication satellite and received at a central control station (INMCC: Indian Mission Control Centre), where the alert signals are decoded for the identity and location of the fishing boat. The extracted information is then forwarded to Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) under the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
Using this information, the MRCC coordinates to undertake search and rescue operations to save the fishermen in distress. Till now, more than 20,000 DATs are being used. “Further, taking advantage of technological developments in satellite communication and satellite navigation, ISRO has improvised DAT with advanced capabilities and features evolving to Second Generation DAT (DAT-SG),” ISRO said.
The DAT-SG has the facility to send back acknowledgement to the fishermen who activate the distress alert from sea. “This gives an assurance to him (the fisherman) of rescue coming to him. Apart from transmitting distress signals from the Sea, DAT-SG has the capability to receive messages from control centres. Using this, advance alert messages can be sent to the fishermen at sea whenever there are events of bad weather, cyclone tsunami or any other emergencies. Thus, the fishermen will be able to sail back home or go to safe places,” ISRO said.
Further, the information about potential fishing zones are also transmitted to fishermen using DAT-SG on regular intervals. “This helps fishermen to get good yield in the catch and saves time and fuel. DAT-SG can be connected to mobile phones using Bluetooth interface and the messages can be read in native language using an App in the mobile,” the space agency added. The central control centre (INMCC) has a web based network management system called Sagarmitra which maintains a database of registered DAT-SGs and helps MRCCs to access the information about boat, coordinate the boat in distress in real time. This helps the Indian Coast Guard to undertake search and rescue operations at the time of distress, without any time delay. The services of DAT-SG has been declared operational on a 24 x 7 basis.