Analysis of Navigational Knowledge, Skills and Procedure Compliance of the Deep-sea Fishers of Thoothur Zone, South-West coast of India.

Abstract

Growing number of accidents involving fishing vessels at sea particularly collision between vessels and loss of vessels due to heavy weather is a serios concern. Poor navigation being the main reason, a study was conducted on the Navigational Knowledge, Skills and Procedure Compliance of the deep-sea fishers (125 respondents) of Thoothur zone, Southwest coast of India during 2022-2023 which revealed Navigational knowledge index of the fishers as 4.29. Further their Navigational skill index was estimated at 7.90 and the Navigational procedure compliance being 6.73. The low Navigational knowledge index indicated inadequate knowledge level and could be attributed to the low educational level with the mean schooling years of 6. Relatively better Navigational skill index could be attributed to higher level of interpersonal skills (Interpersonal skill index 9.06) besides terrestrial and celestial navigational skills (Index value 9.02). The reason for the relatively lesser adoption of Navigational procedure compliance observed in the study could be due to the fact that the fishing vessel design itself did not comply with the standard design and without basic navigational facilities. The study warranted need for the up gradation of navigational knowledge level of the deep-sea fishers of Thoothur zone through trainings. Further, the Navigational equipment operational skills and cognitive skills are to be improved through practical demonstration and awareness trainings respectively. The design of the deep-sea fishing vessels also needs to be standardised besides equipping the vessels with adequate modern navigational equipment such as RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging), NavIC, Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Electronic Navigational Chart which are required for safe navigation in deep-sea fishing vessels.