Kollam: Regular emergency alerts from the beacons distributed among the fishermen in Kerala for their safety and security are keeping the officials at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Mumbai and its Kochi office on tenterhooks. However, most of these alerts turn out to be false alarms.

Beacons were given to fishermen around the country after the Mumbai terror attacks.

Apart from the Maritime Rescue authorities, Coast Guard and Coastal Police personnel too are flummoxed by the alarms.

The Mumbai Rescue Centre last week received a distress signal from a beacon at the border of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts. The message was conveyed to the centre’s Kochi office, Coast Guard and Fisheries Department.

Each of the beacons, made with technical know-how from Keltron, has a unique identification number. It is the Fisheries Department that can identify the owner of the beacon from the number.

Analysis of the information received showed that the distress signal from the beacon was received not from the sea, but land. The location was near Anchuthengu in Thiruvananthapuram district.

Subsequently, the Coastal Police based at Anchuthengu carried out a search in the area and found the beacon in the house of a fisherman. The beacon had sent the alert as it was lying immersed in water.

Officials switched off the beacon and warned the owner against misusing it.

The beacon is programmed to send a distress signal whenever it comes into contact with water. Several such false alarms are sent out often from various places creating a headache for the authorities.

It has also come to the notice of officials that many fishermen are reluctant to take the beacon along with them to the sea.