Silver fish full compartment...

(Baonghean) - Today is sunny but windless! - Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu is a "logistics" partner for fishing boats in Lach Van (Dien Ngoc, Dien Chau), looking out at the sea while wrapping her hand around the scarf on her head, then continuing to quickly transport ice, rice and food to the boat. In the last few trips, many boats have been successful, this trip Ms. Lieu has to prepare a little more for the boats to go further out to sea...

Boat returns to Lach Van fishing port (Dien Chau).

In the hustle and bustle of boats going to the estuary, each person is busy with their own work, fortunately, I met Ms. Lieu, who is interested in the story and asked her questions. People in the coastal commune of Dien Ngoc have a stable life thanks to the good promotion of the traditional fishing profession. Onshore services are also developing, many families combine going to sea and providing onshore services to quickly escape poverty. Average households have risen to become well-off and rich. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu is a typical example. For the past few years, her husband's health has declined and he has not been able to go to sea like before, she has struggled to raise two school-age children alone, and the family has had times when they were short of food. Fishermen do not abandon each other in times of hardship and adversity, some ship owners in the commune discussed creating conditions for Ms. Lieu to have a stable job: Every day she supplies salt, ice and food for ships going out to sea. From doing logistics work, she observed and immediately thought of retailing fresh seafood imported to restaurants. Working hard like that, earning extra money by contributing a little each day, Ms. Lieu became an active woman of Dien Ngoc fishing village and when she had a fair amount of capital, she became a key person to purchase seafood to supply the needs of the region...

Dien Ngoc fishermen invest in building new boats to go offshore.

At the wharf, there were several large fishing boats raising their flags, ready to set sail. We met an old man who had just come up from the fishing boat, standing hesitantly on the wharf like an old general who had just bid farewell to a young army about to go into battle. He was fisherman Le Sy Vinh (60 years old, Dong Loc hamlet). It turned out that he was a very open-minded person. He said: “Fishermen in Dien Ngoc have a long tradition of fishing. However, building large ships with hundreds of horsepower is not much. However, this is the main fishing season and there is encouragement from the State to go offshore and stick to the sea, so people are very enthusiastic” – What does that mean? - “It means not just going offshore or offshore. Except for stormy days, when the sea is rough, we should take advantage of every hour, every day to set sail. We have to compete with fishermen in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa sea areas!” – Mr. Vinh explained.

Well, these days, going to any coastal commune, you can see the same spirit among the fishermen of our province. Both those at sea and those on shore prepare for each trip more carefully with a higher determination to overcome difficulties. And it seems that the luck of the fishing grounds is not the most important thing, but the people are always looking forward to the changes in the sacred territorial waters of the Fatherland that are being violated. Mr. Le Sy Vinh continued to talk: “When going offshore, we focus on fishing grounds with lots of fish and shrimp. As long as we can find a fish stream, we are not afraid to go offshore no matter how far. Now, our fishermen hope to go as far as possible… Just like the day China started a war at sea, the commune officials held a meeting to encourage people to continue going offshore. Many people said, don’t worry about that. Go offshore to fish, and if necessary, be ready to go offshore to fight the enemy. Our sea, our source of livelihood, why don’t we stick to it and protect it?”

It was “a pleasure” to hear Mr. Vinh share. And even happier to know that Dien Ngoc fishermen in their 60s like Mr. Vinh now join together to set an example for the young, competing to go offshore at least 4 times a month... For over a month now, the pair of boats with a capacity of over 600 CV of Mr. Vinh's family has always been at sea for 6 to 8 days, the most recent trip was 10 days. Every trip is successful, mainly still valuable seafood for export such as shrimp, crab, squid and Chilean fish. He also bragged that his children were able to build solid, spacious houses thanks to the sea. He then explained the reason why he did not participate in this trip: “A close friend from the days when we worked as a kitchen assistant at sea has recently built a pair of new boats, so I am staying home to help for a few days to gain strength. I won't go, but I have to come here to instruct and encourage my children and friends to reach out and reach out and cling. If necessary, we must go to the sea of ​​our country!”

It is easy to get inspired by the spirit of sticking to the sea of ​​Dien Ngoc fishermen. And I don't know if the spirit of sticking to the sea is so high that the sea supports the fishermen, but in the recent fishing trips, all of Dien Ngoc's fishing boats have been successful, the yield has increased and the value of the fish caught has also increased, the boat owners and their friends are very excited. The women on the shore welcome the fishing boats back to the creek, seeing the silver fish filling the holds, they are both happy and proud of their men at sea.

In the afternoon, we returned to the headquarters of Dien Ngoc Commune People's Committee as scheduled by the Vice Chairman of the Commune in charge of economy, Nguyen Van Dung. He briefly reported the good news from the commune's sea trips in the first 6 months of the year: Dien Ngoc still maintains the "position" of the locality with the largest number of boats in Dien Chau district. The whole commune has 398 boats, of which 60 boats have a horsepower of 90 CV or more and hundreds of mid-shore and near-shore boats, with the current capacity to exploit 13,000 tons of various types of seafood each year. In the first 6 months of 2014 alone, nearly 7,000 tons were exploited, an increase of 600 tons compared to the same period last year. People are rushing to replace old boats by investing in building new boats. Currently, there are 6 pairs of boats that have just been completed and have gone offshore for the first trip and caught a large source of fish, with an estimated catch of nearly 4 tons of various types of seafood per boat; the average income of workers at sea is 5-6 million VND/month.

In Dien Ngoc, many families buy large fishing boats. Ship owner Ngo Tri Dong in Ngoc Tan hamlet has bought a pair of offshore fishing boats for nearly ten years, creating regular jobs for 20 workers, with an income of 6 million VND/person/month. The pair of boats owned by ship owner Dong always stick to the sea in distant fishing grounds. Once, when fishing in a common fishing area, ship owner Dong's boat was threatened by a Chinese ship, but the crew members were not shaken, calmly carried out their work, and arranged for people to be on deck to be vigilant, but in the end the Chinese ship could not do anything. Ship owner Dong said that his pair of boats earns hundreds of millions of VND in profit every year after deducting expenses. The happiest thing is that it also ensures jobs for the workers on the boat and the women who do business on Lach Van. He also focused on coordinating with local authorities to have crew members participate in rescue teams at sea. On board, there were always long-range and medium-range radios and mobile phones ready, promptly informing local authorities and Border Guard Station 152 about the situation at sea whenever there were strange signs...

Vice Chairman of the commune Nguyen Van Dung added that currently, Dien Ngoc commune accounts for 30% of the total maritime militia force of the entire Dien Chau district. Ah, that means that now Dien Ngoc fishermen going offshore must have more awareness and determination about the task of protecting territorial waters. To further confirm this interesting meaning, we met with Lieutenant Colonel Truong Dai Doan - Commander of the Dien Chau District Military Command. He said: “The Dien Ngoc maritime militia platoon is one of the six maritime militia platoons in the country, selected by the Ministry of National Defense to build a training site. When directly fishing offshore, the Dien Ngoc commune's maritime militia will join the Navy, Coast Guard, and Border Guard Station 152 to stick to the fishing grounds, contributing to maintaining Vietnam's sea and island territory. Every day, around 4 p.m., the District Military Command and 8 coastal communes monitor the activities of the maritime militia in the sea areas through the Icom long-range communication device. After each fishing trip, the District Military Command and the authorities of the communes invite the ship owners, who are also the maritime militia platoons, to report on the situation and from there assign the next tasks...

Protecting territorial sovereignty on the basis of peaceful struggle and on a legal basis, even though they do not have "nets in one hand and guns in the other", the spirit of sticking to the sea and proactively grasping all situations at sea of ​​the fishermen - Dien Ngoc sea militia further enhances the thought of "full-hold silver fish" fishing trips during the main fishing season.

Article: DS - TH, Photos: Canh Yen - Dinh Sam