The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A lesson in safety for fishermen

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Saturday, Apr 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A lesson in safety for fishermen

Staff Reporter

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

All about operation: Coast Guard officials demonstrate the use of safety equipment at an interaction with fishermen from Nochikuppam in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: Fishermen from Nochikuppam, near the Lighthouse here, learnt about the use of safety equipment at the first Coast Guard District Headquarters’ interaction with local fishermen on Thursday afternoon.

All fishing vessels should have first aid kits on board to deal with medical needs that required immediate attention, officials said. The fishermen were urged to maintain communication equipment such as radios and walkie-talkies on board, besides lifebuoys and life jackets and distress alert transmitters.

The Global Marine Distress System would receive and transmit signals from such transmitters globally. This would enable the authorities to direct the nearest craft towards the distressed vessel and hasten rescue efforts. Some transmitters have been given on a trial basis to fishermen in Royapuram, Coast Guard officials said.

Officers demonstrated the use of lifebuoys and jackets. The orange colour of the lifebuoys ensured that they could be spotted from a great distance, an officer said. A few varieties of the transmitters that could alert authorities or a nearby vessel of a craft in distress were demonstrated.

The Search and Rescue Transmitter would start transmitting distress signals at the press of a button and two separate red lights would glow if the signals were received by any craft and if another vessel was heading towards the vessel in distress.

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