Livelihoods in fishing ports

(Baonghean) - Thousands of women have their lives tied to the ships that dock at Lach Con port. When the ships return from the open sea, their relatives are waiting for their husbands and children, while these women only hope that their holds will be full of fish so they can have work.

At nearly 2am, the 400-horsepower boat of fisherman Quynh Phuong (Hoang Mai town) slowly docked at Lach Con fishing port after more than 10 days at sea. The sound of the ship's engine made the quiet space in a corner of the port become bustling.

At this moment, on the dock, dozens of people, mostly women, were looking at the ship, eagerly waiting. Among them, in addition to the wives of husbands who were sailors, there was also a team of hired fish stevedores.

“Sometimes they wait for the ship to return more than we wait for our husbands. If the ship catches a lot of fish, they will have a lot of money,” said Nguyen Thi Ha, wife of a young crew member, with a smile.

Women work as fish loaders at the fishing port. Photo: Tien Hung

At this Lach Con fishing port, there are hundreds of fishing boats coming in and out every day. The port is also the place where about 900 fishing boats of fishermen in Quynh Phuong and Quynh Lap wards buy seafood. When the boats are about to arrive at the port and get a phone signal, the captain will call to notify the buyer.

After a tiring journey at sea, when returning to the mainland, the crew just needs to rest. All the remaining work is done by the ship owner and the traders hired by the people on shore. At this time, the buyer will call the fish loading team to clearly state the location and time of the ship's arrival at the port.

Unloading the fish from the hold and then transporting them to the dock is the first step after the ship arrives at the port. This is also the hardest work so it is only for men. About 3 people take turns to carry each heavy tray of fish out of the hold.

In this fishing village of Quynh Phuong, there are very few men working on the shore. When the fish reach the shore, the work is mainly done by the women.

“Usually, when a fishing boat returns from offshore, there are about 10 women whose job is to sort the fish, weigh them, and then load them onto trucks. This job is paid by the product, each ton of fish is worth a few hundred thousand dong. Each box of fish weighs dozens of kilos, it is very tiring, but all the men here go to sea, so we can only hire women,” said Ms. Pham Thi Huong (42 years old), a fish buyer at Lach Con port.

While rocking her youngest son, who was not yet 2 years old, in the middle of the night, Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan (31 years old) received a phone call from the buyer. She hurriedly drove her motorbike to the port. “If I don’t come quickly, I will lose my spot and they will hire someone else. Luckily, my grandparents’ house is right next door so they can help me look after my child,” Ms. Ha said.

Due to her family's difficult circumstances, Ha dropped out of school after 8th grade to go to the fishing port to earn a living with her mother. A few years later, she fell in love with a young man from the same village who also worked as a fisherman. To date, the couple has 4 children. Marrying a man who works at sea, all the housework seems to fall on her shoulders.

“Every month, my husband is only home for about 5 days and then goes away. We have many children, and the money he earns from working at sea is not enough to cover the expenses. I have to send my grandchildren to my grandparents to go to the fishing port to earn more income,” Ms. Ha added. If she is lucky enough to be hired by many ships to load fish, there are days when Ms. Ha earns nearly 1 million VND/day.

Fishing boats arrive at Lach Con port without any regular schedule. Sometimes dozens of boats line up to import seafood, but sometimes there are no boats for several hours.

“Many times while I was eating, the buyer called. I was afraid I would be late and had to put down my bowl of rice and rush to the port. Luckily, my house is close. But sometimes I waited at the fishing port for an hour without seeing any boat coming to pick up fish,” said Hoang Thi Lan (21 years old).

Lan is the youngest of the women who work as fish catchers here. Before getting married, Lan was famous for her beauty in the area. Seeing me jostling to take a photo, Lan quickly waved her hand, her face red. “This job is very hard, there is nothing interesting to take a photo of. All day long there is the smell of fish,” Lan said.

To convince me, Lan raised her arms high, revealing the fish scales stuck to her shirt after each time she loaded goods onto the truck.

Married at the age of 17, Lan has had two children. Only three days after the wedding, her husband went fishing at sea. Since then, like most women in this fishing village, Lan has had to raise her children alone.

“If you do not get sick and are diligent at the port, you can earn nearly 7 million VND a month. However, how much you earn depends on how much the fishing boat catches,” Lan shared. Each offshore fishing boat, which has been fishing for more than 10 days, usually brings back about 8 tons of fish. It takes this group of women about 2 hours to sort the fish and weigh them before loading them onto the truck.

Quickly wiping the sweat from her face, Lan said the hardest days were the rainy days when water was flowing all over the harbor. Loading the half-ton fish crate onto the truck, many people accidentally tripped and fell, injured and had to stay in the hospital for a month.

“It’s normal to fall and get bruises on your arms and legs in this job. The fish tanks have ice inside, so after each work session, your arms and legs will be numb from the cold. If you are lucky enough to be hired and have good health, you can load about 5 ships a day. As for me, I can only load 3 ships,” Lan said.

Lach Con Port is a source of livelihood for thousands of women. Photo: Tien Hung

At this fishing port, there are hundreds of women doing the same job as Lan and Ms. Ha. Some are over 50 years old but still working hard to make a living. Among them, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh (54 years old), is often given work by other women because of her difficult family situation.

More than 10 years ago, after a trip to the sea, Ms. Hanh's husband fell ill and unfortunately passed away. Since then, she has been working hard to raise her 5 children alone. Not long after her husband's funeral, her eldest son, who had just turned 20, also died in an accident.

With debts piling up, Mrs. Hanh had to work all day at the fishing port as a hired hand. She would do whatever anyone hired her to do, as long as she had money. Therefore, each time she shared her wages, her colleagues often gave her a larger portion. When there were no boats, she would run around buying miscellaneous fish to sell at the market early in the morning, earning a little extra profit.

“Many times I wanted to quit because my health was getting worse, but “when the rain stops, there is no more water”. If I stopped working, I wouldn’t know where to get money to pay for expenses, and my children are still in school. I had to try to come here to make a living,” said Ms. Hanh.

Mr. Ho Xuan Huong - Acting Chairman of Quynh Phuong Ward People's Committee said that the ward currently has nearly 600 fishing boats of all kinds. In addition to the majority of local men who have gone to sea, fishing also provides jobs for thousands of people on shore.

“Now there are thousands of women depending on this fishing port. Some unload fish for hire, others wait for ships to return to buy small fish, others go there to mend nets for hire and remove crabs and fish… They all have good incomes,” Mr. Huong said.

Tien Hung