Marine accidents in the small scale fishery are not recorded on an ongoing basis by any agency – government or otherwise. Data on accidents were always sourced from insurance claims made by fishermen but these claims included accidents which occur on land too so a correct picture of marine accidents was never available.
In 2008, SIFFS organized an awareness campaign on sea safety for small boat fishermen across 12 coastal districts of Tamil Nadu covering 417 villages. While at it, the team recorded over 2000 marine accidents in the small scale fishery by interviewing survivors, eye witnesses and next of kin.
The earliest data was from 1960 but all the years between 1960 and 2008 were not represented. So we short listed the data for consistency and accuracy and using 1210 accidents from 2000 to 2007, we produced a document which provided a detailed analysis of marine accidents in the small scale fishery of Tamil Nadu.
The document contains analysis based on the following parameters:
Types of accidents
Number of accidents
Human casualties – (death and injuries)
Non-human casualties (loss of equipment)
Accidents without any casualties
Accidents with respect to phases of fishing
Accidents with respect to type of fishing craft
A summary of the entire document is provided at the end along with recommendations on sea safety measures for small boat fishermen in Tamil Nadu.
It also contains appendices which have select case studies on accidents and a brief about safety equipment which can be used in small fishing boats.
A pdf of the above document can be downloaded from the link below. Feedback and comments on the document may be sent to the author, John Swamy. johnswamy@gmail.com
News & Events
Go TamilNadu Page
Go Top