Perception of Fishers on Fishery Information Service Dissemination in South Tamil Nadu

Abstract

There is an increasing awareness about the potential
of fishery information services. This study was
carried out in the southern coastal districts of
Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram
districts the Tamil Nadu state to explore the existing
dissemination of fishery information services to the
fishers and their perception towards fishery information
services. A total of 180 sranks (master
fisherman) of the vessels were selected as respondents
representing mechanised and motorised sectors.
Results showed that fishers were not using
PFZ advisories regularly, due to the non availability
of the information for all the fishing days, but 80.4%
of the motorised and 76.8% of the mechanised sector
had higher perception on the usefulness of PFZ
advisories in terms of reduction in scouting time of
fish, reduction in fuel consumption, increased CPUE
and comparatively increased net profit. Fishers of
the motorised (89.9%) and mechanised (89.2) sector
also had high perceptions on the ocean forecast in
terms of saving life and in getting updates on ocean
and weather conditions. Regular information
dissemination on a real-time basis is required for the
services to be effective.