Nghe An fishermen strive to go offshore

(Baonghean) - To exploit seafood potential, fishermen in Nghe An localities boldly build large ships and boats, actively go offshore to fish, despite always having to face hardships and dangers at sea...

Overcoming difficulties

Normally, fishing activities are inherently difficult with waves and storms. However, Nghe An fishermen still head to the sea, where there is not only economic benefits but also the sacred territorial waters of the Fatherland. Therefore, the recent "sea storm", after the environmental safety incident in April 2016 of the Formosa Steel Plant in Ha Tinh, despite facing many difficulties and challenges, Nghe An fishermen still regularly go far out to sea, looking for clean fish sources, maintaining and developing the traditional profession.

Duc Tam 01 ship has just been built under the loan of Decree 67 at Cua Lo port.

Recently, according to daily monitoring in Cua Lo sea area and neighboring areas, Nghe An sea is not affected by the environmental pollution incident caused by Formosa. However, that incident still affects the seafood consumption of Nghe An fishermen. Consumers' concerns about seafood have greatly reduced purchasing power, although the quality and quantity of fish in Nghe An sea area have been confirmed by environmental and food safety authorities to be as "clean" as before.

In particular, the demand for sea fish consumption in Vinh City and other areas has decreased sharply. In addition, due to some unscientific and objective information causing confusion in public opinion, some people have lost confidence in the real quality of aquatic and seafood products caught and raised by fishermen in the province in environmentally friendly sea areas. Not only that, the decrease in purchasing power has also given traders a reason to oppress and push the prices of seafood down sharply.

Fishermen as well as authorities of coastal localities such as Hoang Mai Town, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, and Cua Lo Town said that the prices of fish caught during this time have decreased significantly. According to Mr. Pham Van Cong, owner of boat 097861 BD in Quynh Thuan Commune (Quynh Luu), fish that are sold at high prices such as whale fish, which normally cost 40,000 VND/kg, are now only 15,000 VND/kg. With such a decrease in the price of seafood, if each fishing trip lasts 5 days and yields about 10 tons of fish, the income is only enough to cover expenses.

Mr. Phung Ba Thu, owner of 3 fishing boats in Nghi Thuy ward (Cua Lo town) also said that although this year the fish harvest is relatively good, but because of the sharp drop in prices, income from sea trips has decreased dramatically. Previously, a tray of mackerel and dong fish sold at the market was at least 200,000 VND, but in recent months, there have been times when it was only sold for 70,000 - 80,000 VND, only equal to the price of fish used to process animal feed.

Despite facing many difficulties, Nghe An fishermen are still persistently sticking to the sea. According to a report from Nghi Thuy ward (Cua Lo town), this year's fish catch output has not decreased compared to previous years. As of early September, the entire town has caught 5,700 tons of seafood, reaching 75% of the town's plan. According to statistics from Hoang Mai town, the fishing ground exploitation situation in the first 8 months of the year achieved quite high results, with the total catch output estimated at 19,743 tons, equal to 67.85% of the plan, up 4.54% over the same period...

Link to increase exploitation value

With the active support of all levels and sectors from the central to local levels, in order to actively stick to the sea in difficult conditions, Nghe An fishermen have found many ways, united together in offshore fishing trips. The quality as well as the catch have been improved through the construction of larger ships with the ability to go further offshore as well as large capacity.

Fish coming back at Lach Quen wharf, Quynh Thuan commune (Quynh Luu).

For example, Mr. Pham Van Cong in Quynh Thuan commune (Quynh Luu district) proactively borrowed money from the bank to buy a ship worth 8 billion VND, allowing him to go to the fishing grounds of the Gulf of Tonkin, about 120 nautical miles from the mainland to catch high-value seafood such as tuna. This type of ship allows Mr. Cong to go to sea for 5-10 days with a yield of about 10 tons.

Some other households such as Mr. Hoang Van Hoa, Block 10, and Phung Ba Thu, Block 8, Nghi Thuy Ward (Cua Lo Town), thanks to loans from Decree 67 CP of the Government, these two households have built two composite hull ships worth more than 12 billion VND with a capacity of 822CV, allowing for sea voyages of up to 20 days with a capacity of up to 70 tons.

With the current situation of falling fish prices, the profit from each voyage that this type of ship brings is still about 200 million VND. Moreover, with the 2 ships under the above mentioned loan program, the preservation process is also improved thanks to PU tanks that retain heat better than the previous method of preservation with foam.

To ensure that good quality seafood sources are not affected by environmental incidents, fishermen often choose distant fishing grounds. Therefore, the connection and mutual support are highly emphasized. Fishermen have established teams of 3 to 5 ships. When fishing at sea, these teams keep in touch with information about high-quality, high-value fish areas as well as promptly support each other when there are incidents at sea. In Hoang Mai town alone, 66 offshore seafood exploitation teams have been established, and 2 coastal fisheries co-management teams have been established in Quynh Lap and Quynh Phuong with over 350 fishing households participating.

A fish buyer in Quynh Thuan commune.

In Quynh Luu district, there are currently 110 fishing teams linked together at sea. The communes of Quynh Long, Quynh Thuan, Tien Thuy, Son Hai... have an average of 5-7 boats forming a fishing cooperative with the purpose of helping each other in fishing and exploiting seafood at sea; preventing natural disasters; supporting fuel and food when necessary. That connection creates a solid foundation for fishermen both at sea and on land.

Faced with difficulties in consumption, fishermen have agreed to consume their products with some purchasing and processing companies to ensure stable output. In addition, most fishermen try to sell all kinds of fish, if there are no consumers to buy, they will sell to businesses processing animal feed, this is a temporary measure but still offsets part of the cost.

Overcoming challenges, Nghe An coastal fishermen strive to stay at sea and always hope that consumers will regain confidence in the clean seafood they catch. On the journey to overcome difficulties, fishermen hope that authorities and sectors will step up to inspect the quality of seafood and connect more outlets for good seafood consumption.

With a sea area of ​​over 4,200 square nautical miles, Nghe An's marine resources are considered quite rich, with over 267 fish species, of which 62 species have high economic value. Marine fish reserves are over 80 thousand tons, many valuable species such as pomfret, mackerel, red snapper, mackerel, 20 shrimp species with reserves of 610 - 680 tons... To exploit the potential of marine seafood, the fleet in the province has developed in the direction of gradually reducing the type of boats with a capacity of less than 20CV, the number of large capacity boats for offshore fishing has increased quite rapidly to serve offshore fishing in order to gradually reduce coastal and offshore fishing activities.

Hoang Vu