Fishermen sadly wait for calm seas.

(Baonghean)Over the past few days, due to the complex weather conditions in the East Sea, many fishing boats have had to stay ashore to avoid the storm. The inability of boats to go out to sea has caused hardship for thousands of households who have long depended on the sea for their livelihood, and many related industries involved in fishing have faced difficulties due to a lack of work.

Rarely have so many storms formed consecutively in the East Sea, affecting our country's waters as in recent times. Three storms (numbers 4, 5, and 6) followed one another from September 19th to October 6th, and storm number 7 is expected to make landfall in the East Sea tomorrow morning (October 14th). Combined with cold fronts, this has forced thousands of fishing vessels to return to shore to seek safe shelter. While there were no casualties or property damage, the fact that fishing boats were unable to go out to sea for several days has significantly impacted the lives of fishermen and led to the disruption of related fishing industries.

According to data from the District Department of Agriculture, as of now, Dien Chau district has 1,354 boats and rafts directly involved in fishing at sea. Of these, about 600 boats have a capacity of over 20 horsepower, mainly concentrated in communes of Dien Chau district such as Dien Ngoc (394 boats), Dien Bich (208 boats), Dien Thanh (11 boats)... The total number of laborers directly involved in fishing is about 4,300 people, the number of laborers involved in service industries is about 8,500 people, and about 950 laborers are involved in the seafood processing sector. For more than 17 days (September 19 - October 6), most of these laborers were unemployed and could only wait for the sea to calm down.

We arrived in Dien Bich commune while it was still raining heavily. Gone were the days of deserted village roads; everywhere we went, we saw people gathered in their homes. Of the eight hamlets in the commune, six are engaged in fishing, employing over 4,500 people. Mr. Pham Van Hung, Chairman of the Dien Bich Commune People's Committee, said: "Although it's a coastal commune with a long history of fishing, the lives of the people here are still very difficult. Currently, the poverty rate is 25%, and the average income per person is only 1 million VND per month. During the year, there are two months – Tet (Lunar New Year) and the typhoon month – when people have no work."

Although he couldn't go out to sea, Mr. Dong still had to spend over 2 million VND each day to pay wages to his workers.

Mr. Tran Van Dong, from Quyet Thang hamlet, Dien Bich commune, owns three fishing boats with engines of 90 horsepower or more, specializing in offshore fishing. Since Typhoon No. 4 formed, his boats have been docked. Even though they can't go out to sea, he still has to spend 2.5 million VND per day paying wages to his workers. Mr. Dong said: "Without going out to sea to fish, all I can do is sit around at home doing nothing. I employ 12 workers and pay them monthly salaries, so every extra day they're home means another debt."

Many people who work for boat owners are also facing difficulties due to unemployment. Mr. Thai Ba Dinh, from Bac Chien Thang hamlet, is one of the families in a difficult situation in the commune. Because his wife is ill and his children are young, he alone bears all the family's living expenses. Normally, after each fishing trip lasting 3-7 days, he would bring home money for his family, but for more than half a month now, the family has been struggling to make ends meet. His monthly salary of over 2 million dong is not enough to buy medicine for his wife and pay for his children's school fees.

Because fishing boats are unable to go out to sea, related services such as ice production, frozen seafood processing, and oil trading have also come to a standstill. Currently, the commune has more than 10 households producing ice to supply the boats in the commune. In recent days, these households have had to stop production because the boats are not going out to sea, and they don't know who to sell the ice they produce. They haven't sold a single block of ice in the past few days.

Currently, according to Mr. Hung, Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune, most of the commune's boats are in a dilapidated and severely degraded condition. Because the cost of building a new boat is very high, people are buying used boats. Most boats with a capacity of 90 horsepower or more are bought from the South, so their safety is not high. Because they buy used boats, fishermen do not receive any support from the State. The case of Mr. Tran Duc Hung's family in Bac Chien Thang hamlet is an example. Mr. Hung's family owned a 48-horsepower boat, but after 3 years of operation, they had to bring it ashore because it was severely degraded, and they lacked the capital to repair it. Ironically, even though he wanted to sell it to borrow capital to build a new boat, no one would buy it because it was too old and dilapidated, so Mr. Hung had to reluctantly work as a hired hand for other boat owners.

In recent years, weather conditions at sea have become increasingly complex and unpredictable. This has made life much more difficult for fishermen in Dien Chau and coastal areas in general, especially during the rainy and stormy season.

Pham Bang