Layout
planning of a fishery harbour
An
excerpt from Planning fishery harbours in the Indian context, by CT
Betgeri
For
the development of a fishery harbour project, unlike other civil engineering
projects, one should be fully conversant with many differing branches
of engineering such as coastal engineering, soil mechanics, strength
of materials transportation engineering, public health engineering,
structural design of steel, RCC and other materials, electrical/ electronic
and mechanical engineering and among others, the important biological
and economic aspects of the fishery harbour project. The roles for each
expertise, in brief, can be stated as follows:
Fishery
biologists provide useful information on the potential fishing ground(s),
quality and quantity of fish catch, type of vessels and gear required
for fishing. They specify the type, size and number of fishing vessels
to be based in a fishery harbour, besides listing out the harbour services
and facilities likely to be availed by the different types of fishing
vessels.
- The
naval architect/boat builder decides the listing of the harbour services
and facilities likely to be availed by the different types of fishing
vessels.
- They
also decide the various characteristics of fishing vessels, their
supply, maintenance and repair needs.
-
The topographic and hydrographic surveyors and the geo-technical engineers
and technicians in the primary stages prepare the site plan and provide
design inputs.
-
The harbour design engineer will establish the criteria for the detailed
design of all marine structures like breakwaters, revetment, training
walls/groins, quays etc., in line with the finished harbour layout
plan and design the harbour structures accordingly.
- The
marine and mechanical engineers assist in designing the fishing vessel
repair facilities like sloping hard, slipway, dry dock, boat repair
yard and boat hauling systems complete with their mechanical and timbering
details, furnish details on workshop facilities including all machinery,
plants, equipment and tools.
- The
civil engineer specialist will design the roadways, railways, fresh
water supplies, surface drainage and sewerage systems.
-
An architect provides the architectural details of all the landside
buildings and the structural engineer will design these buildings.
- The
refrigeration and processing engineers specify the chilling and freezing
storage, as well as the drying/curing, canning and other fish processing
needs.
-
The electrical engineer will work out the requirements of power supply
and lighting.
-
An economist will keep a check on the economic and financial assessments
and conducts evaluations on fisheries and harbour activities during
the planning operation.
The
above description of roles for various experts is enough to suggest
that the harbour layout planning and its detailed design and construction
can hardly be done by one man, but require collective work by various
experts specialized in the above multi-disciplinary subjects. In all
the harbour planning operations, the harbour design engineer is expected
to play the key role who has, in turn, to coordinate with various other
subject experts.
While
fishery biologist and economist will have their final say in the matters
of their own field, the harbour design engineer is required to interact
and share hi views with experts in the other engineering and non-engineering
fields. Other experts like the coastal engineer and geo-technicians
who happened to investigate the fishery harbour site would have to assist
the harbour design engineer in the identification of problems which
are likely to be met during planning and construction process of the
fishery harbour and suggest alternate solutions to these problems.
Information
to be gathered for harbour layout planning
While
analyzing the fishery information and the engineering data about the
harbour site, the
vital questions to be pondered initially by the
harbour design engineer with his team of experts are:
- Size
of the fishery resources and Nearness of fishing grounds to support
a fishery harbour on a continuous and sustainable basis.
- The
design fishing fleet viz., the type, size and number of vessels likely
to use the fishery harbour.
-
Location of the fishery harbour based on economic, political, sociological,
as well as on commercial grounds in relation to availability of construction
materials and labour, nearness to fish markets, transportation and
distribution systems for fish and fish products and other ancillary
fish industries.
- Existing
fish landing and other infrastructure facilities at site.
- Waterside
and landside facilities needed for the design fleet size.
After
listing out these facilities, the size of facilities must be determined
in relation to the number of fishing vessels, their sizes and the quantum
of fish landings. Obviously the harbour facilities needed for the three
types of fishery harbours like fish landing center, minor and major
fishery harbours are not identical. They deviate considerably from each
other to serve the needs of individual case. Some more issues that need
to be addressed are:
-
Construction equipment needed and the methodology to be adopted.
- What
are the harbour operation costs and the probable harbour user charges?
- Who
will manage and maintain the fishery harbour?
- Initial
capital cost needed, how is it proposed to be obtained and paid back?
Planning
of water and land area in a fishery harbour
While
preparing the fishery harbour layout, a harbour design engineer should
ensure that the overall harbour area is adequate for accommodating the
essential waterside and landside facilities, with a proper balance between
land and water area. For planning of water area, on an average, it can
be assumed that an acre (0.4 hectare) of harbour basin will accommodate
about 15 to 20 fishing boats of 10 to 12 m OAL. This is, in addition
to water area required for the harbour entrance channel.
Land
area required for establishing the landside facilities, internal road
network, fish processing and ancillary fish industries would vary from
one harbour to another depending on the quantum of fish handled in each
harbour. The minimum requirement of land will be about 8 to 10 acre
(3 to 4 hectare) to support the landside facilities, internal roads,
parking areas and space required for setting up of fish processing and
ancillary fish industries. Ideally, the proportion of land area required
for a fishery harbour would be roughly tow third of the water area required
for harbour basin and entrance channel.
But,
in reality, this is unlikely to happen, as either the available water
area restricts the fishery harbour development to a limited number of
boats that the harbour can accommodate or the available land area will
limit the size and scope of the landside facilities it can support.
Planning
of harbour entrance channel
Sometime,
the natural harbour entrance conditions will have problems as regard
to sufficiency of water depth and width during low waters especially
in spring waters. Such harbour entrances may have to be in the first
instance, dredged and/or improved by providing training walls or jetties
protruding in to the seawaters so that required water depths are obtained
due to better tidal flushing action, but such proposals may have to
be invariably and extensively supported by hydraulic model studies.
For
a fishery harbour to be located on an open coast, it has to be provided
with a protected entrance channel. The entrance channel whether it is
a natural or artificial one, its alignment should be so oriented that
the boats will not turn on their broad side to the incoming waves and
tidal currents and thus, risk boat capsizing during severe wave activity.
In such cases, the field data together with model studies can play a
crucial role in confirming the safe orientation of an entrance channel
for the operation of fishing vessels round the year during all prevailing
weather conditions.
Planning
of quays
Since
various quays like landing, berthing, outfitting and repair quays form
the bulk of the capital investment in a fishery harbour, the total length
of quays should be decided carefully in order to minimize the overall
harbour cost. Clearly, the greater the length of quay, the lesser will
be the waiting time for the fishing vessels and, therefore, to that
extent less congestion during the operation of fishery harbour activities.
On the contrary, the lesser the length of quay, the fishing vessels
have to wait for longer period resulting in port congestion, although
capital investment becomes less. While considering this question, it
should not be overlooked that restricting the length of the quays may
lead to havoc, in terms of loss of fish quality and poor rendering of
services in a fishery harbour.
For
the successful operation of a fishery harbour, proper positioning of
various quays such as landing, berthing, outfitting and repair quays
is very important, so that the fishing vessels within the harbour premises
will move in an orderly manner. The following are the considerations
in arranging these quays:
The
fishing vessels are expected to follow the right-hand marine traffic
rule. It is, therefore, desirable to place the landing quay on the right-hand
side near the harbour entrance when the vessels enter the fishery harbour.
In addition, the place should be in a centralized area close to the
fish auction and /or packing halls and other fish processing industries.
The
landing quay, if placed near the harbour entrance, has an added advantage,
where in all profitability water depths are more towards seaside. This
will help the bigger vessels withstand slightly higher wave action prevailing
near the harbour entrance. Bigger vessels also need larger manoeuvring
space, which, if provided near the entrance, will least affect the movement
of small-size boats in the inner harbour basin(s).
To
plan for a fish landing quay, all the activities taking place there
should be fully satisfied so as to make the fish landing quays more
efficient and rational. Wherever necessary, the fish landing quays should
have sufficient space for receiving and/or handling fish boxes from
the fishing boats, a covered shed or auction hall for the fish washing,
sorting, weighing, auctioning and packing, loading area for fish, parking
area for vehicles, ice storage/ice plant, chilled storage etc.
-
The berthing quay may be placed next to the landing quay little inside
the harbour basin, but necessarily close to the shore facilities such
as fishing gear storage sheds, net mending shed, fishermen rest sheds,
canteen, marine supply and provisions stores, civic amenities etc.
-
To ease the congestion of fishing vessels near the landing quay and
to help the vessels to move from the berthing quay and to help the
vessels to move from the berthing quay to outfitting quay in an orderly
way, the outfitting quay with supply facilities like ice, fuel and
fresh water delivery points are to be placed on the left-hand side
of berthing quay away from the fish landing quays. In addition, the
fuel and fresh water delivery systems should have adequate rooftop
shelters similar to commercial petrol bunks so that the personnel
in charge of these supplies are protected by rain and are able to
work under sunshade.
-
Maintenance and minor repairs of fishing vessels, while they are afloat
can be affected by berthing the vessels at the repair quay. This could
be located some distance away from the outfitting quay preferably
close to the exit of harbour. A repair workshop with adequate supplies
of working tools, plant/ machinery by the side of the repair quay
is essential. However, when maintenance, cleaning or repairs to hulls
near or below the water line is required, then the vessel must be
hauled on to boat repair yard.
Planning
of infrastructure buildings and other utilities
When
it comes to siting of various infrastructure buildings in a fishery
harbour, the modular planning approach will greatly help in ensuring
that a particular set of fishery harbour activities related to each
other can be performed within a designated module alone causing least
hindrance to the activities taking place in other similar modules. The
prominent infrastructure buildings that need to be grouped in a fishery
harbour can be identified under the following five modules:
Fish
landing module:
Fish auction and packing halls, fish loading areas, chilled storage,
freezing plants, vehicle parking areas, vehicle service station, fish
processing plants, fish drying /curing yards, allied fish industries,
fishery administration office, fish auctioneers office, box stores,
radio-communication station etc.
Berthing
Module: Fishing gear storage sheds, net mending shed, fishermen
rest sheds, marine supplies stores, gear and tackle sales shops etc.
Outfitting
module: Fuelling
station, fuel storage, Overhead water tank, underground water pumps,
surface fresh water supply tanks, ice plants, ice shortage etc.
Repair
module: Sloping
hard, slipway other boat hauling systems, workshops, boat parking, boat-repair,
boat building yard, timber yard, automobile, radio and instrumentation
shops etc.,
Public
utilities module: Restaurants,
dormitories, public toilets, fishery co-operative societies, civic amenities
like provisions shops, entertainment facilities, electrical substation,
hospital, post and telegraph office, commercial banks, police out-post/
station, fire fighting etc.
To be continued in the next issue ...
CT
Betgeri is currently the Deputy Director, Institute of Coastal Engineering
for Fishery, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
Mr Betgeri has acquired specialization in the development of fishery
harbours. He has also worked for the development of shrimp farms and
hatcheries under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Government of India
and shrimp culture projects, which were assisted by the World Bank
