November 25, 2020 — For most fishermen, calling home is essential. For decades fishermen used VHF to call a marine operator who would patch them into a phone line. By the late 1990s cell phones made that service obsolete for nearshore fisheries. And for fishermen in remote and distant waters, satellites have become the link to home.
A number of companies, including Inmarsat, Iridium, Globalstar, Thuraya and Garmin, are using a variety of satellite constellations and offering a wide range of equipment and service plans from low-priced text-only systems to satellite smartphones.
Many small-boat fishermen, from Bristol Bay to the Gulf of Maine, are choosing the Garmin inReach technology.