NOAA statelite station opens

NOAA statelite station opens

DENPASAR, Bali: The Ministry of Sea Exploration and Fisheries
along with the BPPT and Superintending Company of Indonesia
(Sucofindo) launched on Monday the country's first earth
satellite receiver station for the National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).

"The technology is used mainly to provide accurate information
on fishing ground mapping along with two existing satellites,
namely Topex Poseidon and SeaWifs ," Director General for Sea
Research and Exploration Indroyono Soesilo said on the sidelines
of the ceremony inaugurating the station here.

Minister of Sea Exploration and Fisheries Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja said the information gained from the satellite
could help security forces deal with illegal fishing in the
country's waters.

"The fishing ground mapping also shows details on the position
of plankton and possible fish gathering through measurement of
water temperature, pressure and climate. This way the fishermen
can obtain information on the best fishing locations as the data
is spread through the cooperative in the villages," Sarwono
explained.

"When we first conducted a trial of this technology with local
fishermen they told me that they caught 34 tons of fish in seven
days instead of only the usual 10 tons of fish within 10 days,"
Sarwono said adding that the station in Denpasar was built at a
cost of about Rp 300 million.

Similar ground satellite receiver stations will be set in
Pekanbaru, Riau and Manado, North Sulawesi later this year. (edt)