Environmental Benefits due to Adoption of Satellite-based Fishery Advisories

Abstract

Fishing operations in India consume large amount
of fuel mostly for scouting operations by vessels.
The satellite based Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ)
advisories have provided an effective solution for
making the fishing operations more profitable by
reducing search time and hence reducing fuel
consumption, which in turn reduces the CO2
emission to the atmosphere. In order to quantify the
amount of reduction in the CO2 emission, the data
collected from the 69 ring seine operations off
Kerala coast have been utilized. The average CO2
emission within PFZ and outside PFZ advisories are
found to be 0.161 t and 0.959 t respectively, resulting
in reduction of 0.8 t. The total reduction in CO2
emission due to usage of PFZ advisories by these
69 experiments is found to be 55.052 t. The
quantification of these results clearly shows that the
PFZ advisories are helpful in reducing the CO2
emission to the atmosphere and making it environment
friendly.