New device to track fishermen

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Department of Fisheries will be introducing a new device in order to assist authorities to locate fishing boats in distress or which have been reported missing. Director of Search and Rescue Operations at the Department of Fisheries, Padmapriya Thisera said the new devices will be handed over to the fishermen upon a directive issued by the Director-General of the Department. The new device can be retrofitted to any fishing boat and if the boat is in distress inside a respective ocean area, the boat can be located using the device. In addition, a weather report will be sent to the device of each boat via an SMS service. So far this year, 13 fishermen were reported missing and 12 fishermen lost their lives at sea.