Hundreds of "giant" ships worth tens of billions of dong owned by Nghe An fishermen

Fisherman Tran Thanh in Phu Lien hamlet, Quynh Long commune (Quynh Luu) is the owner of a boat over 800 horsepower and is proud: Having a big boat with a big engine makes me feel secure every time I go out to sea, catching seafood is more effective, and working on the boat is less difficult because the boat is equipped with a hydraulic winch. Since having a big boat, almost every trip to sea is effective, and the income of the brothers is relatively high.

The "giant" boats of fishermen in Hoang Mai town. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to Mr. Vu Ngoc Chat - Chairman of the Quynh Long Commune Fisheries Association, the locality currently has 106 fishing boats, of which 98 have a capacity of over 400 horsepower, especially 70 of which have an engine capacity of 700 to over 1,000 horsepower, which can be said to be the most "huge" boats in the province.

Local "giant" ships mainly catch seafood by purse seine fishing in the Gulf of Tonkin and offshore; the income of purse seine workers in Quynh Long is at least 7 million VND/person/month.

Every year, Quynh Long's seafood output reaches over 30 thousand tons. In the first 3 months of this year, despite unfavorable weather, Quynh Long fishermen's seafood output reached over 2,000 tons.

A series of "giant" ships of Quynh Luu fishermen docked at Lach Quen fishing port. Photo: Xuan Hoang

The whole province currently has 687/3,905 fishing boats with engine capacity from 400 CV to over 1,000 CV; most concentrated in Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district. According to Mr. Ho The Xuan - Head of Fishing Vessel Management Department & Fisheries Logistics Service Facility (Department of Fisheries), out of 687 boats, there are 222 "giant" boats with capacity from 700 to over 1,000 CV.

Among the 35 communes with fishermen working in the seafood catching profession, there are 4 communes with the largest number of large boats, including: Quynh Lap Commune (Hoang Mai town) with 114 boats; Quynh Nghia with 104 boats, Tien Thuy with 132 boats, and Quynh Long (Quynh Luu) with 98 boats...Each such boat is worth from 14 billion to more than 20 billion VND, the hull is 25-27 m long, 6.5-7.3 m wide, specializing in offshore fishing using purse seine, gill net, 4-pole cast net, achieving high productivity.

All large ships are equipped with net pulling machines using hydraulic winches, fish detector systems... reducing labor, reducing the number of workers on board, increasing labor productivity and economic efficiency.

Investing in big boats and big engines, fishermen can confidently stay at sea. Photo: Xuan Hoang

However, according to the Department of Fisheries, many communes have a large number of boats but do not have, or have very few boats with a capacity of 400 CV, such as the communes of Dien Trung, Dien Thinh, Dien Thanh, Dien Hai, Dien Kim (Dien Chau); Nghi Quang, Nghi Thiet... (Nghi Loc).