Development of small vessel advisory and forecast services system for safe navigation and operations at sea

ABSTRACT Fishing is the most dangerous profession in the world. To reduce the number of accidents caused by capsizing of vessels, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has designed and developed an advisory and forecast services system for the Indian ocean regime, which warns users against potential zones and times at which vessel overturning can take place, three days in advance. This paper discusses the development and various aspects of such a system, its decision-making mechanism, and the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Warning advisories issued by the system are based upon a newly coined index-Boat Safety Index (BSI). The advisory system is verified with a few real-life incidents of the past. The refinement of the advisory system is planned by updating suitable thresholds for the indices based upon regular feedback from the users. The boats operating along the Indian coast are classified into different categories based upon their beam size, and category-specific advisories are issued.