News:According to a report,there has been a huge increase in Chinese deep-sea fishing trawlers in the southern Indian Ocean.
Facts:
- In the last four years,on an average at least 500 Chinese trawlers were present in the region and around 32000 incidents were recorded per year.
- However,the trawlers were not in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but beyond.
- There were 1,100 occurrences near Somalia and 1,500 occurrences near the Coast of Oman.
- The incidents were recorded with the help of Automatic Identification System(AIS).
- This has raised concerns for the Indian government and the security establishment.
Additional information:
Exclusive Economic Zones
- Exclusive Economic Zones refers to the area from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.In this area,the country has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources.
- The most important reason to introduce EEZ was to halt the clashes over the Fishing Rights and Oil Rights.
- In the EEZ, the foreign vessels have freedom of navigation and overflight subject to the regulation of the coastal states.Foreign states are allowed to lay submarine pipes and cables.
Automatic Identification System (AIS):
- The automatic identification system (AIS) is an automatic tracking system that uses transponders on ships and is used by vessel traffic services(VTS).
- AIS information supplements marine radar, which continues to be the primary method of collision avoidance for water transport.
- The AIS information comprises name, MMSI number, position, course, speed, last port visited, destination and so on.
- This information can be picked up through various AIS sensors including coastal AIS chains and satellite based receivers.
- In India, there has been a national effort to install AIS systems on ships under 20m for which a pilot study has been carried out.
- AIS works through satellite and the ISRO has already delivered 1000 transponders for trails in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
