Buying fishing boat insurance, fishermen buy their own 'lifebuoys'
(Baonghean.vn) - Fishing is a high-risk profession. Almost every year, there are accidents on boats, and many fishermen become penniless because their fishing boats do not have insurance. Therefore, fishermen need to consider that buying insurance is like equipping themselves with a "lifesaver".
Empty-handed after the ship fire
Fishing,seafood exploitationFishing at sea requires large investments in means and fishing gear. In recent years, with the expectation of going offshore to catch seafood in far-off waters, many fishermen have invested tens of billions of dong to buy large ships, large machines, and install modern fishing support systems to achieve large catches and higher seafood values.
However, this profession of drifting at sea always faces many risks due to big waves, strong winds and other unexpected incidents. Not only that, boats can encounter risks at any time, anywhere, even when anchored on shore. Whenever a boat encounters a risk, if the boat owner does not buy insurance, it is considered empty-handed. The fire of 5 fishing boats at the same time on the night of July 28 is an example.
A serious fire burned down five large-capacity ships at the same time.fishermen of Quynh Luu districtThe recent fire caused over 20 billion VND in damage. According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dinh - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district, the damage of over 20 billion VND of the 5 ships was depreciated after several years of operation, if calculated based on the time of construction, it would be over 30 billion VND. The cause of the fire was initially determined by the authorities to be an electrical short circuit on one ship, then the fire spread to 4 other ships. As a result, all 5 ships were completely burned and could not be repaired.
It is known that out of 5 childrenfishing boat on fireRecently, only 1 fishing boat with license plate NA-95656-TS owned by Tran Van Doan in Son Hai commune had insurance, the remaining 4 fishing boats did not have insurance, as a result, dozens of crew members were left penniless in a moment.
Fisherman Bui Minh Nam in Dai Bac hamlet, Quynh Long commune, who jointly invested in fishing boat with license plate NA 99696, built under the support policy of Decree 67/CP, said: The total value of the boat is over 11 billion VND and has been put into operation for 6 years now. Now the boat has burned down, and he did not buy fishing boat insurance, so he does not know what to do now. For now, he is left empty-handed.
As the only insured ship owner among the 5 burnt ships, fisherman Tran Van Doan in hamlet 6, Son Hai commune (Quynh Luu) said that the ship built under Decree 67/CP had a total value of more than 8 billion VND, of which the Bac Nghe An Industrial and Commercial Bank lent 5.7 billion VND, the remaining amount was contributed by 7 crew members. After 7 years of operation, we have paid off the bank debt of more than 3.5 billion VND, currently the remaining loan from the bank is 2.2 billion VND, then the ship caught fire and was completely damaged.
Fortunately, our ship had previously purchasedhull insurance, so hope to have insurance to cover the damage. If you do not buy hull insurance, after this ship fire, not only will you not have the means to work, but also where will you get the money to pay off the bank loan.
“Immediately after the boat fire, the family was instructed by the local authorities and the insurance company to prepare documents to request insurance payment according to regulations. Currently, we are waiting for some documents from the authorities to inspect and examine the fire,” said fisherman Tran Van Doan.
Need to pay attention to buy fishing boat insurance
Nghe An currently has 3,469 fishing vessels, with a total capacity of 654,224 CV, of which 1,762 are fishing vessels over 15m. The number of large-capacity fishing vessels that regularly fish offshore is also the number of vessels most vulnerable to risks. Therefore, to feel more secure during fishing, ship owners need to proactively purchase hull insurance.
However, through the investigation of the reporter on information on fishing vessels purchased insurance, it shows that the number of fishing vessels purchased insurance is not much compared to the total number of fishing vessels operating in the whole province. The representative of BSH Insurance Company, Nghe An branch, said that the number of ship owners purchasing fishing vessel insurance every year is not much; at the unit alone, there are only nearly 150 customers purchasing fishing vessel insurance. In addition, there are a number of other companies selling fishing vessel insurance, but the number of customers purchasing fishing vessel insurance is also very small.
Mr. Tran Xuan Hoc - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: No matter how big a fishing boat is, it is still very small in the middle of the vast ocean, especially during rough seas. Regarding fires, due to the characteristics of the ship's hold being made of flammable materials, along with a large amount of fuel, when a fire breaks out, the fire spreads very quickly, and in just a few minutes the entire ship is burned down. Therefore, there are still regrettable lessons about accidents at sea and terrible fires on fishing boats.
For crew members on fishing boats, according to regulations, ship owners are required to buy insurance, but for the hull of the ship, it is not mandatory. For that reason, many ship owners do not buy boat insurance, when there are risks such as fire, sinking ship... which causes heavy property damage, then fishermen become penniless.
Fishing boat insurance companies need to be concerned and responsible to customers who have purchased insurance after an accident. In fact, in recent years, the handling of cases of fishing boats of fishermen in distress at sea, although they have purchased hull insurance, but the insurance side is slow to resolve, or makes it difficult, has lost the trust of fishermen. Therefore, companies selling boat insurance need to have a high sense of responsibility towards fishermen after purchasing insurance, in order to create trust so that fishermen have a place to rely on when they encounter risks.
To build a large-capacity fishing boat requires a large investment capital, at least several billion VND, many up to tens of billions of VND; every time a fire occurs on the boat, fishermen suffer heavy losses. In fact, the serious fishing boat fire that just occurred while anchored at Lach Quen Fishing Port (Quynh Luu) once again sounded the alarm bell that needs to pay attention to fishing boat insurance./.
