To Nghi Thuy, a place of diverse trades along the coast.

(Baonghean)I arrived in Nghi Thuy (Cua Lo town) on a winter morning. The air was misty with a hint of sea breeze, a slight salty taste on my lips. The fishing harbor seemed to have been awake since the night before, bustling with the sounds of buying, selling, and trading. Occasionally, the roar of fishing boat engines would echo as they docked, bringing tuna, grouper, snapper, sea snails, green crabs, and shrimp... Nghi Thuy truly never rests.

Fishing boats from Nghi Thuy ward dock at the port.

I met Nguyen Viet Phuc right at the Nghi Thuy fishing port. Amidst the chatter, laughter, and the noise of dozens of refrigerated trucks coming and going, we only had a small space to talk. “I only do small-scale business, nothing significant,” Phuc said, seemingly guessing my intentions. However, this sturdy young man, as strong as a lime tree, also told me he had been working at sea for over 10 years. Phuc is from Nghi Tan but married into a family and chose Nghi Thuy to settle down. His main occupation is catching sea snails.

“I often go to the dock to buy bait for catching snails. The bait consists of low-quality mantis shrimp and crabs that have been caught and sorted by fishing boats,” Phuc said, pointing to the pile of carcasses he had just bought. Phuc also explained that catching fragrant snails requires specialized fishing gear, such as nets and steel traps. Each trip on Phuc's boat, with its more than 80 horsepower engine, lasts about three days and nights. The amount of fragrant snails caught isn't much, only a few hundred kilograms. However, this is a high-value seafood, costing over 300,000 VND/kg, and even 600,000 VND/kg during the tourist season for "beautiful" snails, so it's worth the effort of going out to sea and sticking with the profession.

The fishermen of Nghi Thuy are famous for catching mackerel and tuna, and every early morning the fishing port is bustling with buyers and sellers.

Many believe that, although it's all about seafaring, Nghi Thuy ward is home to a diverse range of occupations. There's fishing with nets, trawling, hook and line, crabbing, shellfishing... and even seaside tourism. The people of Nghi Thuy are inherently dynamic, even from their early days specializing in trading and supplying "si can hen" electronic goods. And now they've returned to their irreplaceable, age-old profession.

Mr. Hoang Thanh Hong, Secretary of the Party Branch of Block 7, Nghi Thuy Ward, still chuckles when recalling old memories. The Party Branch Secretary of the residential block with 179 households said that Block 7 is one of the leading units in Nghi Thuy Ward in the exploitation, fishing, and processing of seafood. More than one-third of the households in Block 7 are involved in seafood exploitation and fishing. This includes three pairs of trawling boats with a capacity of 400-450 horsepower. Currently, the average per capita income is over 35 million VND/person/year. Block 7 is also recognized by the state as a seafood processing village with key products being fish sauce, peeled shrimp, and shrimp paste. Nearly 60 families are involved in this work.

As if to prove his point, Mr. Hoang Thanh Hong led us to visit several families involved in processing fish sauce and peeled shrimp in the traditional craft village. Just as we arrived at the gate of Mr. Duong Ngoc Trung's house, we were greeted warmly by the man in his sixties. The Party Secretary didn't need much explanation as he surrounded us in his spacious courtyard of about 100 square meters.²There were countless vats for fermenting and preserving fish. “It’s all made from black anchovies, also known as black scad. Each batch weighs a few tons, and we make it year-round,” Mr. Trung happily introduced. The homeowner also mentioned that his family has been in this business for five generations. Each year, his family supplies about 20 tons of products to the market, including about 13 tons of shrimp paste, earning a net profit of over 200 million VND.

Processing shrimp paste and fish sauce in Nghi Thuy seafood village.

Mr. Hoang Thanh Hong, Secretary of the Party Branch of Block 7, further revealed: "The block has 38 families who have invested in electric vehicles to serve tourism needs, and many other shops and businesses as well..."

According to veteran fishermen in Nghi Thuy, fishing has been a long-standing occupation for the people of this land, but it truly became a maritime profession in the 1940s. At that time, some fishermen from Cua Sot (Ha Tinh province) settled here and formed the Mai Giang fishing village, part of the Phuong Dong cooperative in Nghi Thuy commune (now Nghi Thuy ward). From those first fishermen, Nghi Thuy now has nearly 800 households involved in the exploitation, fishing, aquaculture, and processing of seafood. The ward currently has 173 fishing vessels, including 42 offshore fishing vessels with a capacity of 350-450 horsepower.

Nghi Thuy also has the largest number of fishing vessels in Cua Lo coastal town. The fishing industry has created jobs for nearly 1,000 workers, not including thousands more involved in service and trade activities. Notably, in 2015, Nghi Thuy ward built two new composite-hulled vessels under Decree 67 with a capacity of 820 horsepower each. The average annual catch reaches 6,500-8,000 tons. In 2015, thanks to actively innovating fishing methods such as venturing further offshore, arranging multiple fishing gear on one vessel, and maintaining four cooperative groups to help each other at sea, Nghi Thuy's seafood catch reached 8,000 tons, valued at over 157.8 billion VND. The average income of each fisherman reached 52-57 million VND/worker/year. A prime example of venturing further offshore in Nghi Thuy is Mr. Vo Van Phuc, from Block 7. Mr. Hoang Van Hoa, grade 10; Mr. Mai Van Thai, grade 4…

Fishermen in Nghi Thuy before heading out to sea.

Mr. Vo Van Ly, Chairman of the Nghi Thuy Ward People's Committee, said that to help fishermen effectively develop their marine economic activities, local leaders have created many favorable mechanisms to support fishermen in accessing investment capital for building new boats, upgrading capacity, and purchasing fishing gear. At the same time, they maintain cooperative groups of boats to help each other at sea. The purpose is to share and help each other during the fishing process, especially during storms and other emergencies at sea. Every year, the local authorities organize study tours for boat owners in other localities within and outside the province to learn from successful models, and invest in building a fishing port to facilitate fishermen's docking, product sales, and improve fishing logistics.

As the year of fishing draws to a close, a new fishing season is about to begin. If you're a fisherman from Nghi Thuy on a trip out to sea at the start of the new year, you'll surely feel a sacred emotion mixed with pride upon receiving the national flags from local leaders before departure. This is not only a tribute to those who brave the rough seas, but also a testament to the trust and responsibility that the homeland bestows upon each fisherman on the sacred waters of their ancestors.

Dao Tuan