Ocean Navigational Skills and Professional Training: An empirical analysis on Tamil Nadu Deep-sea fishermen, India

Abstract

There is always a chance that the rise in mishaps for deep-sea fishing may be related to the fishermen's lack of formal professional training. This raises the issue, "Are the fishermen's navigational skills sufficient to prevent the mid-sea collision and to adapt to the latest technological development in the deep-sea fishing industry?"

The goal of the study was to determine their navigational skills, which involved 405 deep-sea fishermen from geographically dispersed fishing harbours of Tamilnadu, India. Data from the fishermen were gathered using a structured questionnaire; the dependent variables being navigational skill, while the independent factors were age, formal education, and sea experience.

The demographic variables and the navigational skill were analysed by percentage analysis. Perception analysis and unstructured interview were also carried out. Chi square test was employed to test the hypothesis “Formal education has influence on the self-taught navigational skill of the Tamilnadu fishermen” and it was rejected.

This demonstrated that irrespective of formal schooling, additional professional training is required to improve fishermen's navigational knowledge, and in turn to improve deep-sea fishermen's navigational skills.