The dynamic captain in the coastal town of Cua Lo

Pioneering in building large ships to reach the sea

Coming to Nghi Thuy fishing village, the story and name that everyone tells and mentions a lot is Mr. Phung Ba Thu, the captain - Chairman of the Fisheries Association - Platoon Leader of the Nghi Thuy Ward Marine Militia. Because he was the pioneer in building large ships, changing jobs, going offshore and contributing with Nghi Thuy fishermen to make Cua Lo the leading locality in the province in terms of seafood catch, as well as contributing to protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands.

Born in 1974 in a fishing family in Nghi Thuy fishing village (Cua Lo) - a locality with a traditional profession of catching and processing seafood, Thu's childhood, apart from going to school, was spent on the river. Like many other young men in the fishing village, after finishing high school, Phung Ba Thu followed his father to the sea. At that time, small-capacity boats made fishing very difficult, and aquatic resources were depleted because the area near the coast was heavily exploited by fishermen, some of whom even used explosives to exploit seafood.

Despite his young age, Mr. Thu soon realized that this not only destroyed the environment and destroyed seafood, but also violated the law and endangered lives. Therefore, when the Party Committee and the Nghi Thuy ward government encouraged fishermen not to use explosives to exploit seafood, he persuaded relatives and friends to contribute capital to convert from small-capacity boats that fished and exploited nearshore ineffectively to 400 CV boats that exploited offshore areas. With a large boat, he created jobs for 20 members with an average income of 150 - 200 million VND/person/year, in addition to creating jobs for dozens of people in fishing logistics. From his effective production model, 50 boats that fished by trawling have converted to trawling.

Not stopping there, after 5 years of highly effective production, the crew's life is increasingly stable, developing and having accumulated capital, he clearly realized that to catch high-value seafood, it is necessary to go far offshore with large ships, which is also participating in protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands. Once again, he mobilized and persuaded the crew members to continue contributing capital to build 2 new ships with a capacity of 820 CV/ship with an amount of more than 12 billion VND. Since building the new ships until now, the annual exploitation output has been high, the average income of workers is from 200 - 300 million VND/person/year, the labor serving fishing logistics is 70 - 90 million VND/person/year.

From the pioneering work of building large-capacity ships to go offshore by Mr. Phung Ba Thu, along with the propaganda and mobilization of the Party Committee, the government, and political organizations, many ship and boat owners have built large ships to change jobs, go offshore, and exploit effectively. Up to now, Nghi Thuy ward has 42 large-capacity ships, each ship is more than 20m long, each year exploiting over 13,000 tons; in the first 6 months of 2023, reaching 10,000 tons, the locality with the highest output in the province.

EXEMPLARY, LEADING IN EVERY MOVEMENT

Not only pioneering and skillfully mobilizing fishermen to build large ships and change their jobs, fisherman Phung Ba Thu also propagated and mobilized nearly 100 boat owners to join the establishment of the Fisheries Association to propagate the Party's policies and the State's laws to fishermen, and at the same time, through the Association, to express the thoughts and aspirations of fishermen to the government. In the 1st Congress of the Fisheries Association for the 2022-2025 term, he was elected by the members to the Executive Committee and held the position of Chairman of the Nghi Thuy Ward Fisheries Association.

Implementing the Party and State's policy on building a maritime militia force, the Nghe An Provincial Military Command decided to establish a maritime militia platoon to protect the sovereignty of the sea and islands. Mr. Thu mobilized 6 ship owners with 31 members to join the platoon and he was assigned the important responsibility of Platoon Leader of the maritime militia platoon.

With his responsibilities, he and his members actively participated in military training, political education, law dissemination, and participated in drills to mobilize civilian vessels to fight to protect the sovereignty of the seas and islands of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam according to Decree 30 and 130 of the government. Providing information on the situation of seafood exploitation by fishermen and the illegal intrusion of foreign vessels into our country's waters, reporting to the Ward Military Command, functional agencies and the Border Guard Station of Cua Lo - Ben Thuy Port to have plans to fight. And more than that, he always cares about and mobilizes fishing vessels in the Association for rescue, search and rescue of distressed vessels and missing people at sea.

Not only surfing the sea to develop the economy and participate in protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands, but in village affairs, family affairs, and social activities, Phung Ba Thu always shows himself to be a filial son.

As a member of the Yen Luong Temple Relic Management Board, every year he mobilized more than 60 boats to participate in the Cau Ngu Festival, the sea parade of the Mai Bang Temple Festival, Yen Luong Temple. He is often the one who initiated, participated in and organized cultural and sports activities during the sea holidays such as friendly football matches between production fleets, creating a sports movement among union members. In addition, he also donated tens of millions of VND to help areas affected by natural disasters, storms, floods, families in difficult circumstances, and supported and gave gifts in programs.“Spring of Love” “Warm Winter”for children in the highlands.

With the above meaningful work, Mr. Phung Ba Thu was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee for the Provincial-level Excellent Production and Business Household for the period 2016 - 2021 and received many Certificates of Merit and Certificates of Merit from organizations and authorities at all levels. At the Congress of the Farmers' Association of Cua Lo town for the 2023-2028 term, which was held in June 2023, he was honored to be elected to the Executive Committee of the Farmers' Association of the town, term VI.