Nghe An boats return to avoid tropical depression with large amount of valuable needlefish

Hearing about the tropical depression, Captain Nguyen Quoc Tien in Tien Thuy commune, owner of fishing boat NA 998.99, called on the fishermen on board to collect their nets and gear to return to shore for shelter.

Since the morning of July 31, Mr. Tien's ship has returned to Lach Quen port. The crew on board quickly found a safe anchorage to transport seafood to shore before the heavy rain.

Quynh Luu fishing boats return to Lach Quen port, Tien Thuy commune (Quynh Luu) to avoid tropical depression. Photo: Viet Hung

Fisherman Tien said: “After about 10 days of fishing, the boat caught more than 5 tons of fish, of which about 3.5 tons were exported with a total revenue of more than 200 million VND. In recent fishing trips, the appearance of many hairtail fish has increased, so the value has also increased, not a bad harvest like before.”

This morning (August 1), all fishing boats of fishermen from Tien Thuy, Quynh Nghia, Son Hai, Quynh Thuan, Quynh Long communes... have returned to shore to avoid low pressure. At Lach Quen fishing port, many fishing boats have had a good season of seafood such as hairtail, tuna, anchovy, pomfret, squid... On average, each boat catches 5 - 10 tons of seafood with revenue of hundreds of millions of VND.

Many ships docked far from the purchasing location, so they had to use small boats to transport them before the heavy rain. Photo: Viet Hung

Crew member Ho Van Hung in Quynh Nghia commune said: “This is the main seafood exploitation season, so the output is higher than before, but the selling price is lower due to market fluctuations and the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. In particular, hairtail fish, which has the highest value among the seafood species that fishermen often catch, is now also purchased very cheaply. However, fishermen still persist in sticking to the sea because this is their main occupation.”

According to the price of seafood at the fishing port when the ship returned to avoid the low pressure, the highest price of grade 1 exported hairtail fish was 150,000 VND/kg. After the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, goods were not exported to China so the price dropped to 80,000 - 90,000 VND/kg, but currently the purchase price is only 60,000 VND/kg; grade 1 tuna is 20,000 VND/kg (previously 30,000 - 35,000 VND/kg); anchovy is 13,000 VND/kg (previously 15,000 VND/kg); pomfret is 45,000 VND/kg...

This trip, all the boats had a good catch of needlefish. Photo: Viet Hung

According to fishermen, all valuable fish have lost value, but in return, their income depends on anchovies because the price is 3,000 - 5,000 VND/kg higher than previous years, while this type of fish, if caught, can reach tens of tons/ship... As of July 2020, the entire Quynh Luu district exploited nearly 40,000 tons of seafood, reaching more than 50% of the plan, with the output reaching nearly 6,800 tons in July alone.