Behind the Kochi fisheries symposium: the ocean colour sensor ISRO flies on EOS-06

Background

Behind the TREVOR SAFARI symposium at Kochi sits a piece of Indian space hardware. The Ocean Colour Monitor-3, or OCM-3, is carried on the EOS-06 satellite, which is also called Oceansat-3. The sensor measures chlorophyll-a in surface waters. Chlorophyll-a is a proxy for phytoplankton, and so for how productive a patch of sea is. Where phytoplankton gather, fish follow, so the data is used to mark potential fishing zones. A deputy director of ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre set out these applications at the symposium. Scientists also combine the satellite readings with wind measurements to study how El Nino shifts nutrient-rich water. Fish catches inside the marked zones were found to be 1.5 to four times higher than outside them.