THE University of the West Indies (UWI) Trinidad Campus has indicated its willingness to assist Guyana as this country embarks on a drive to combat piracy. 

A press release said, to initiate such intentions, the UWI will be using low-cost mobile smart-phone tracking technology that can link up ‘fisherfolk’ with Guyana’s Police and Defence Force.
The release, issued by Senior Lecturer Kim Mallalieu, from the Department of Engineering, who is in Kigali, Rwanda, reported that her department, recently, executed a presentation dictating the method used by Trinidad and Tobago fisherfolk, which entails the use of mFisheries application suite on their mobile phones to seek emergency response and also acquire specific advice on how to deal with technical glitches, such as engine failure and other related issues while at sea.
Mallalieu said the technology could be provided to Guyana free of cost to help in summoning the Coast Guard to precise areas where they may have been attacks by pirates.
Mallalieu is also Principal Investigator of the Trinidad-based Caribbean ICT Research Programme, also located at www.cirp.org.tt.
If Guyanese authorities were to agree with the UWI intentions, the mFisheries Mobile App would be customised for Guyana and the Guyanese Atlantic Coast and inland marine areas vulnerable to piracy would be “geo-fenced.”
Mallalieu said training for the GDF Coast Guard and other response agencies would be provided to acquaint such bodies with the techniques to monitor the tracks of the web application. In that case, all the authorities here will have to do is sponsor or cover flight, accommodation and ground transportation costs for personnel that would travel here to conduct the necessary training.
Literacy skills
Answering questions as to how the application caters for users with limited literacy skills, she responded that, making an SOS call “is trivial” and emphasised that literacy is not required because there is an SOS button which is not textual.
She said it is the standard SOS signal that is recognised all over the world and there is a confirm button, thus making ready a simple two-step process.
The UWI Department of Engineering has already adapted the mFisheries application to work in the Cook Islands in the Pacific and Trinidad and Tobago.
The tracking application is triggered when a user with the phone turned on, crosses the coastal boundary and then sends information packets to the server, periodically, to the web server.
The packets contain unique phone and SIM card identifiers that log the time, date and GPS location of the vessels. When the user goes out of cellular coverage, the tracking information is stored locally on the phone and then uploaded upon the person’s return to an area of cell coverage.
Mallalieu related that all registered mFisheries users are required to formally agree to authorise the Coast Guard to access their GPS coordinates.
When an SOS text message is sent, automatically phone calls, SMS and emails are sent to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard. Fisherfolk can also add other persons they would like to receive SOS alerts.
The mFisheries App suite also aids fisherfolk in locating fishing grounds, record the types of available fish, to communicate with potential buyers and know the available prices.