Final episode: Steadfast in the middle of the ocean

(Baonghean) - Only by accompanying fishermen on offshore fishing trips can one better understand their lives. Days drifting with the blue sea and silver waves, sleepless nights searching for fish, hasty, exhausted sleeps on the nets, and even frustrations when facing violations of sovereignty disputes in fishing grounds... All of these only make Nghe An fishermen in particular more determined to go offshore and stick to the sea, contributing to affirming the sovereignty of the Fatherland's territorial waters...

The whole village "surrounded"

In 2011, for the first time, I participated in an offshore purse seine fishing trip of fishermen in Quynh Luu district. At that time, the 450 horsepower boat of Captain Tran Van Thanh in Phu Lien village, Quynh Long commune was considered one of the largest fishing boats in the region. At that time, in Nghe An, there were only about 20 offshore fishing boats using purse seine fishing and all were concentrated in Quynh Luu coastal district. After 4 years, returning to Lach Quen this time, we were surprised by the vibrant development of the purse seine fishing industry here.

Fishing boats dock at Lach Quen port

I met Mr. Tran Van Trang, a talented old fisherman of the Quynh Long fishing cooperative. He smiled and raised his veined hand: "I'm retired. Every "young man" nowadays is good. Big boats, big engines, modern, not like the old days!..." The old fisherman said that before, he and his fellow fishermen only fished around with trawling and squid fishing in the open sea, the biggest boat was only a few dozen "xève", only the compass was the most modern. But now everything has changed. The talent of fishermen is not only to grasp and master modern equipment and technology, but also to forecast the development trend of the profession, thereby being bold and decisive in investing and changing professions. This is most clearly shown in the "going up the net" in Quynh Long commune...

If in 2000, in Nghe An, the first purse seine boats appeared and Mr. Nguyen Van Minh in Dai Hai village (Quynh Long - Quynh Luu) was considered the pioneer in bringing the new profession to Quynh sea fishermen, then up to now the whole province has over 100 purse seine boats. Notably, the "inception" of this profession started in Quynh Long commune. From the first purse seine boat of Captain "Minh Luong" to now the whole commune has up to 72 purse seine boats, all with a capacity of 300 horsepower or more. Mr. Tran Quang Ve - Secretary of Quynh Long commune Party Committee, who has accompanied and been attached to each step of the development of the fishing industry here, said: "Going up the purse seine" is a breakthrough step. Our people are very sensitive. The whole province of Binh Dinh is the leading locality in the country in purse seine, but up to now there are only 35 purse seine boats. Meanwhile, Quynh Long alone with 184 fishing vessels has more than 70 purse seine boats and many households are continuing to invest in building new boats.

"Even if there are thousands of seine boats, if it doesn't change people's lives, it's as good as nothing" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Thap, Head of Phu Lien village, Quynh Long commune said when we mentioned the profession. Ms. Thap said that her family also has a 600 CV seine boat with 18 regular workers on board. The average income is 10 million VND/person/month, and in a "winning" month it reaches over 15 million VND. Now Phu Lien is no longer a poor village, the number of well-off households accounts for more than 65%. All thanks to the people's sensitivity in changing careers, determined not to let the profession passed down by their ancestors be lost.

Happy to welcome the fish home

The story of "going up the seine" in Quynh Long commune is just a small example showing the vibrant development of offshore fishing, going out to sea by Quynh Luu fishermen. According to statistics, Quynh Luu district currently has 1,260 fishing and seafood exploitation vessels, of which nearly 700 vessels have a capacity of 300 CV or more. In 2014, the exploitation value of the whole district reached nearly 1,000 billion VND, and in the first 5 months of 2015, the catch output reached nearly 20,000 tons of seafood with a value of nearly 620 billion VND. Notably, from the beginning of 2015 until now, in Quynh Luu there are 22 fishing vessels with a capacity of 400 CV or more that have been newly built and participating in offshore fishing, 13 others are continuing to be completed and launched in the coming days. The strong development of offshore fishing activities has contributed to the formation of a fishery logistics service system, creating many jobs and incomes for people. Not to mention the big things, just for women who cannot go to sea, on average they can earn an additional 3 million VND a month thanks to the job of mending nets for ship owners. Then there are shipbuilding and machinery repair facilities; seafood purchasing and processing centers, freezing services; production facilities, supplying ice, fresh water, grease, necessities...

With fishermen at sea

On March 9, 2015, in Nghe An, a "shocking" event took place for fishermen. It was the first time an iron-hulled fishing boat was launched. The owner of the boat was Mr. Nguyen Quoc Trong, in Tan Lap 1 hamlet, Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district. This boat is part of the Government's project to support offshore fishermen under the Project to restructure the fisheries sector towards increasing added value and sustainable development. To have this boat worth about 12 billion VND, Mr. Trong contributed more than 3 billion VND, including 10% of counterpart capital, investment money to purchase new fishing gear and costs for 20 crew members to attend school and training on how to use the boat. He happily said that since having the iron boat, he and his crew members have expanded their fishing range, going out to exploit the fishing grounds of Truong Sa and Hoang Sa. Currently, Mr. Trong is approaching fishing support policies to build new iron ships worth 15 - 17 billion VND, to continue promoting the advantages of offshore fishing activities.

Not only Mr. Nguyen Quoc Trong's family but also many other households in Nghi Quang commune are benefiting from the State's fishing promotion policies. Since 2011, to encourage fishermen to go out to sea and compete in production, the People's Committee of the commune has had the initiative to give each boat a national flag at the beginning of the fishing season. After each trip back from sea, if any boat has a big catch, it will raise the national flag given by the commune to signal and "show off" to everyone about a "great victory" trip. This way of doing things of the commune unexpectedly created an effect and then the People's Council of the commune issued a resolution to support and encourage fishermen to produce and get rich on the sea of ​​the Fatherland. Accordingly, every year, based on the fishing output of the boats, the commune will select 2 boat owners with the highest income, creating jobs for the most people to award certificates of merit along with a bonus of 400,000 VND, households that build new boats of 90 CV or more will be awarded 1,000,000 VND... Although the bonus amount is not large, as fisherman Nguyen Van Ngoc said, this is a great encouragement.

The fishing fleet of Quynh Luu district fishermen.

Also a form of support for fishermen, for many years now, Nghe An Provincial Agricultural Extension Center has connected to bring many programs and projects to people in coastal areas. One of them is the project "Building a model to modernize offshore fishing fleets", supporting fishermen to equip transducers on offshore fishing vessels. Currently, hundreds of fishing vessel owners have purchased transducers for their offshore trips. Some fishing boats of Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town have even applied the installation of KODEN model MDC - 940 marine radar and VX - 1700 long-range communication device on offshore fishing vessels, contributing to saving costs at sea and shortening the time of each offshore trip.

In addition, the Nghe An Sub-Department of Exploitation and Protection of Aquatic Resources is implementing programs to support fishermen such as: Instructing ship owners on regulations on fishing gear at sea, signs to identify foreign fishing vessels, hotline numbers of specialized forces to promptly report incidents at sea. In particular, the Fisheries Surveillance Force of Region I and the Nghe An Sub-Department of Exploitation and Protection of Aquatic Resources have continuously organized patrols, inspections, and supervision of the implementation of the Vietnam-China Fisheries Cooperation Agreement in the common fishing area of ​​the Gulf of Tonkin to propagate and disseminate laws to fishermen in fishing; instructing on the regulations of the Vietnam-China Fisheries Cooperation Agreement, checking the recording of fishing logs, how to handle other situations at sea...

Currently, Nghe An fishermen are waiting for a new wind from Decree No. 67/2014/ND-CP. Up to now, the Provincial People's Committee has approved 3 rounds of lists of 68 ship owners eligible for preferential loans to build new fishing vessels and logistics services for offshore fishing. Among them are 34 wooden-hulled vessels, 31 iron-hulled vessels and 2 fishing logistics services. On May 19, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An and relevant agencies, together with 3 fishing households Nguyen Do Thai (Dien Ngoc commune, Dien Chau district), Nguyen Xuan Tri (Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district) and Nguyen Sy Thiet (Phuc Tho commune, Nghi Loc district) organized a launching ceremony, test run and handover of 3 newly built wooden-hulled vessels according to Decree 67. Other vessels that have been approved for loans are also being rushed to completion.

In addition, the province has just approved a list of 208 ships with 1,513 crew members eligible to participate in Fishing Vessel Insurance according to Decree No. 67 of the Government (phase 2). Of which, Cua Lo Town has 61 ships with 428 crew members, Dien Chau has 134 ships with 944 crew members, Nghi Loc has 6 ships with 70 crew members, Hoang Mai Town has 5 ships with 54 crew members and Quynh Luu has 2 ships with 15 crew members. All of these ships have main engine capacity from 90 CV to 580 CV. Accordingly, the State supports 100% of the cost of purchasing crew accident insurance for each crew member working on the ship; Annual support for insurance costs for hull, equipment, and fishing gear on each vessel (all-risk insurance) at the following levels: 70% of insurance costs for vessels with total main engine capacity from 90 CV to under 400 CV; 90% of insurance costs for vessels with total main engine capacity from 400 CV or more...

The vibrant development of the fishing industry in Nghe An shows that the marine economy is gradually asserting its leading position in the local economic structure, and offshore fishing is a concrete proof. On the journey to the sea with fishermen, we always remember the image of Captain Tran Van Khai, his tanned body climbing up to the bow of the ship to replace the national flag in the vast waves of the Gulf of Tonkin. He smiled: "All of our fishing boats prepare a lot of flags. The homeland is always there, the Fatherland is always present...".

Dao Tuan - Nguyen Khoa