The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has joined hands with ISRO to identify potential fishing zone (PFZ), an area in sea where fishes are seen in abundance.

In the first phase, CMFRI and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO have jointly launched a research project for identifying, forecasting and monitoring PFZ in coastal and offshore waters of Tamil Nadu.

The project named “Samudra” is aimed at helping fishermen easily locate shoals of fish without wasting time and fuel. The collaborative research work focuses on developing and running a satellite-based ocean forecasting model to provide PFZ advisories. The project aims to develop a satellite-based numerical ocean model to forecast information about the fishing locations by closely monitoring and analyzing various physical changes occurred in ocean owing to seasonal and climatic variations, high winds, rain and cyclonic conditions.

A Gopalakrishnan, CMFRI Director, called the collaborative research project a milestone in the history of capture of fishery of the country. PFZ advisory will definitely help the fishermen reduce their fishing efforts and at the same time increase their fish catch without wasting much time and fuel, he said and added that “the project assumes significance at a time when India’s capture fishery sector is passing through difficult phase”.

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