Deep Sea Communication Networks for the Safety and Sustainability of Fishermen in India: A Survey

Due to long coastline of India, fishing is considered as the primary source of livelihood for the people in coastal zones. With nearly one million active fishermen, India is the 2nd largest fish producer in the world. Despite having long coastline and vast fishing community, natural calamities like cyclones frequently hit the fishing operations and render damage to the lives and property. The safety and sustainability of the fishermen remain major issues due to the lack of proper communication network from boat to shore. Though mobile network connectivity is available up to 22km from the seacoast, most of the fishermen venture into deep sea to perform the fishing activities. Recently, when the cyclone Ockhi ravaged the Arabian Sea coast, many fishermen from Kerala and Tamilnadu went missing due to delayed cyclone warning and network disconnection from the shore. In such vulnerable conditions, the fishermen community is posing serious question whether they would return safely to the shore another time when they go out to sea. Hence, this study highlights the need to develop emergency communication network for the safety of fishermen along the coastline. This survey presents a brief review of some of the solutions that address the emergency communication requirements for the fishermen far from the sea shore. Further, this study also highlights the need to install floating communication devices offshore to enable seamless connectivity during disaster times.