Buying fishing boat insurance, fishermen buy their own 'lifebuoys'
(Baonghean.vn) - Fishing is a high-risk profession, almost every year there are shipwrecks, many fishermen become penniless because their fishing boats do not buy insurance. Therefore, fishermen need to determine that buying insurance is 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 fish in distant 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 Quynh Luu District People's Committee, 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 initial cause of the fire was determined by the authorities to be an electrical short circuit on 1 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 owner 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 is burned down, and fishing boat insurance has not been purchased, so now he doesn't know what to do, for now he is left empty-handed.
As the only ship owner among the 5 burnt ships that had purchased insurance, 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 hopefully there will be insurance to cover the damage. If you do not buy hull insurance, then after this ship fire, not only will you not have the means to do your job, but where will you get the money to pay off your bank debt?
“Immediately after the boat fire, the family was instructed by 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 consider buying 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 far from shore is also the number of vessels most vulnerable to risks. Therefore, to be more secure during fishing, ship owners need to proactively purchase hull insurance.
However, through the investigation of the reporter on the information of 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 each 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 must buy insurance, but for the hull of the boat, it is not mandatory. For that reason, many ship owners subjectively do not buy boat insurance, when there are risks such as fire, sinking ship... there is heavy damage to property, at that time the fishermen become empty-handed.
Fishing boat insurance companies need to pay attention and be 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, the insurance side has been slow to resolve or has made things difficult, which 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 something to rely on when they encounter risks.
To build a large-capacity fishing boat requires a large investment capital, at least several billion VND, 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 for attention to fishing boat insurance./.
