Offshore exploitation conversion in the Central region: One arrow, two targets

After the Government issued Decree 89/2015/ND-CP (Decree 89) amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 67, fishermen in the Central region quickly approached, built new and upgraded large-capacity fishing vessels to shift to offshore fishing, contributing to protecting the sovereignty of the Fatherland's sea and islands.

Offshore Links

Nghe An's coastline stretches nearly 100 km along 5 districts and towns: Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Cua Lo town, Hoang Mai. Previously, fishermen in this North Central region mainly worked for a living, traditionally near shore. After receiving the new Government Decree 89 on repairing, upgrading and supporting investment in new, large-capacity fishing vessels to go offshore, fishermen in Dien Chau, Quynh Luu districts and Hoang Mai town have actively approached this source of support.

Previously, to reduce investment and production costs, coastal fishermen mainly used fishing vessels to exploit seafood in nearshore waters, and determining fish flows for netting was mostly based on experience. The pressure to exploit in nearshore waters is increasingly high; meanwhile, these waters are the environment for many types of seafood to concentrate on spawning...

However, when the awareness of protecting aquatic resources of the majority of local fishermen is still low, increasing the output of seafood exploitation by fishermen is inevitable; with the use of fishing gear, exploitation methods that harm marine resources such as: using nets with mesh sizes smaller than prescribed, using explosives, electric shocks, chemicals. This is a risk of depleting marine resources, environmental degradation, directly and permanently affecting the output of exploitation.

Illustration photo.

At the end of 2014, with the support of the National Agricultural Extension Center, Nghe An Agricultural Extension Center coordinated with the Party Committee and People's Committee of Tien Thuy, Quynh Long (Quynh Luu), Quynh Lap (Hoang Mai Town) communes to implement the project: Model of modernizing offshore fishing fleet with the participation of 3 vessels and 48 fishermen; thereby, supporting materials, equipment and techniques for boat owners participating in the model to encourage fishermen to develop and increase economic efficiency on each trip. Accordingly, fishing boat NA 96688 TS, capacity of 450 CV, invested by Mr. Vu Xuan Trong (Quynh Long commune, specializing in purse seine fishing) with 1 KODEN horizontal fish finder model ESR-180BB, worth 130 million VND. Mr. Ho Ba Son's boat (Tien Thuy commune, specializing in fishing for 4-tang gong) with the code NA 92666 TS, capacity of 495 CV, invested in a KODEN marine radar model MDC-940 worth 55 million VND. Mr. Le Hong Nhung's boat (Quynh Lap commune), code NA 90256 TS, capacity of 350 CV, invested in a VX-1700 long-range communication device worth 14 million VND. After 2 months at sea, all 3 boats are operating well and have higher fishing efficiency.

Modernizing the offshore fleet

Mr. Vu Xuan Trong (Quynh Long commune) said: "When selected to participate in the model, the agricultural extension staff installed the complete machinery and provided technical instructions on how to operate the equipment. In the first 2 months of going to sea, we made 6 trips, the shortest trip was 5 days, the longest trip was only 7 days, the hold was full of fish, the yield was 22 tons/trip. With the average selling price of all types of fish at the time of exploitation being 12,000 VND/kg, the total revenue was 1,580,000,000 VND; minus the cost of raw materials, the profit was more than 500,000,000 VND. Compared to ships without engines, the exploitation time was 1-2 days shorter/trip, the yield increased by about 5 tons. After the trips catching a lot of squid, fish... the crew on the ship often joked that since the ship was equipped with a horizontal detector, it was like having an extra "eye" at the bottom of the ship that could see through the ocean floor".

In the province, the number of transducers and radars installed to serve offshore fishing is increasing, 100% of fishing vessels have installed long-range communication devices, supported by state capital and purchased by fishermen themselves. The model has achieved high economic efficiency, increasing income by 103 - 145% compared to when the equipment was not installed.

For a long time, fisherman Nguyen Van Minh (Dai Bac village, Quynh Long commune) has been using a vertical detector, the detection range is quite narrow, only detecting fish schools at the bottom when the ship passes by. After attending the training course "Application of horizontal detectors on offshore fishing vessels" deployed by the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center, Mr. Minh immediately bought a horizontal detector for nearly 300 million VND. From the effectiveness of the horizontal detectors for the vessels of households that have been supported since last year, up to now, the whole Quynh Long commune has 20/43 purse seine vessels with a capacity of over 400 CV equipped with this modern fish detector; the total seafood catch of the commune in 2014 was over 17,000 tons (an increase of about 3,000 tons compared to 2013); in 2015 the output was nearly 20,000 tons.

From the effectiveness of the 3 models in 2014, in 2015, the National Agricultural Extension Center continues to support 3 models applying modern marine equipment. Currently, Nghe An Agricultural Extension Center has sent an official dispatch to Hoang Mai town, Quynh Luu and Dien Chau districts to prepare documents for beneficiary households; the goal is that households need to ensure that their means of employment are suitable for the support program according to Decree 02 on agricultural extension.

Mr. Tran Trung Thanh, Head of the Technical Department of Fisheries Extension - Nghe An Agricultural Extension Center, said that the application and installation of modern marine equipment for offshore fishing has brought about positive results. Fisheries extension models have long relied mainly on national funding sources. To solve the immediate difficulties for fishermen when building new boats according to Decree 67/2014/ND-CP, in addition to support from all levels, fishermen need to make efforts to synchronize fishing equipment and go offshore for long periods.

According to the Nghe An Statistics Office, the province's aquatic product production value in 2011 increased by 9.04%; total aquatic product output in 2015 is estimated at 145,000 tons, up 45% compared to the plan. It is expected that in the 2011 - 2015 period, the growth rate of the aquatic product production value will reach an average of 8.5 - 8.7%, exceeding the plan.

According to Vietnam Fisheries