ESSO - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
(An Autonomous Body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India)
Small Vessel Advisory and Forecast Services System (SVAS)
Small Vessel Advisory and Forecast Services System (SVAS) is an innovative impact-based advisory and forecast service system for small vessels operating in the Indian coastal waters. SVA system warns users against potential zones where vessel overturning can take place, ten days in advance. This warning system is based on 'Boat Safety Index' (BSI) derived from wave model forecast outputs such as significant wave height, wave steepness, directional spread and the rapid development of wind sea.
To make the advisories boat-specific, the warning is issued with region of danger in conjunction with the category/size of boat in an inclusive manner, by using the significant wave height information from the model. Thus SVA is categorized according to the beam width of the vessel. Advisories are valid for small vessels of beam width up to 7 m. This limit covers the entire range of beam widths of the fishing vessels used in all the 9 coastal states and union territories of India. The table below mentions the popular categories of fishing vessels used across India and their beam widths. Beam width ranges from 2.1m to 6.5m, and the selected boat size ranges considered for the advisories are with beam widths of <4m, <6m and <7m.
|
State |
Beam width |
Boat category |
|
Gujarat |
5-6 m 4.5-5 m 2.5-3 m |
Trawls Gill netters Dol Net Systems |
|
Maharashtra |
4.8-5 m 2.1 m 3.5 m 3.5-4 m 2.5 m |
Trawls Purse Seiners Gill netters Hook and Line Dol Net Systems |
|
Goa |
4-4.5 m 4-6.5 m 4-4.5 m |
Trawls Purse Seiners Gill netters |
|
Karnataka |
5 m 4-4.5 m |
Trawls Purse Seiners |
|
Kerala |
5.5 m 6 m 4-4.5 m 4-6 m 5.5 m |
Trawls Purse Seiners Ring Seine Gill netters Hook and Line |
|
Tamil nadu |
5.5 m 4-5.5 m 5.5 m |
Trawls Gill netters Hook and Line |
|
Andhra Pradesh |
5 m 4.5-5 m 4.5-5 m |
Trawls Gill netters Hook and Line |
|
Odisha |
4-5.5 m 4.5-5 m |
Trawls Gill netters |
|
West Bengal |
4-5 m 4-5.5 m |
Trawls Gill netters |