According to fishermen in Quy Nhon City, the nearshore fishing season usually starts after the Lunar New Year and lasts until the end of the fourth lunar month. In recent days, fishermen at the fishing ports of Quy Nhon, De Gi, and Tam Quan in Binh Dinh Province have enjoyed bumper catches.
The fishing boat of fisherman Dinh Van Tan from Dong Da Ward, Quy Nhon City, mostly operates in near-shore waters. Tan said that his boat has an average output of 40-60 kg of various types of fish per day.
It must be added that the fishing season at the beginning of the year generates a major source of income for many fishermen in the area.
While fishermen in Binh Dinh Province start a new catching season near the shore, boats and fishermen in the seas of Binh Chau, My A, and Sa Huynh in Quang Ngai Province are busy on offshore trips.
In the fishing village of My A, fisherman Vo Van Khoa stood ready for a two-month sea trip. Packed with proper food, fuel, and paperwork, his ship (labelled QNg 98705 TS) departed for the waters of the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos with five crew members on board.
Khoa shared that he conducts four to five sea trips every year. He had generous catches last year, which helped his family enjoy a happy Tet festival.
“This year we hope to achieve an even higher fishery output,” he said.
At the end of the first lunar month, father and son Nguyen De and Nguyen Ngoc Thanh in Pho Quang Ward, Duc Pho Town, joined six crew members of ship QNg 98758 TS and departed from the My A seaport to the waters of Binh Dinh Province and Da Nang Province to start a new fishing season.
De said that every month, the ship makes two to three trips to the sea, with each seeing catches of approximately five to seven tons of mackerel, tuna, and sailfish. With a selling price of 200 million VND per tonne for mackerel, and 30 million-40 million VND for tuna, crew members earn a stable income from the sea.
In 2023, the two major fishing ports of My A and Sa Huynh in Quang Ngai Province served 8,000 fishing ships with a total output of 7,000 tonnes of seafood.
This year, the fishing ports strive to increase the number of ships by 20%, with seafood output reaching 9,500 tonnes.
With diverse and rich aquatic resources, the waters of Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai have more than 500 species of fish. Of which, 38 species have high economic value that can meet both domestic needs and export market needs, such as species of mackerel, tuna, and squid.
Last year, fishermen in Binh Dinh Province and Quang Ngai Province gained a total seafood output of nearly 600,000 tonnes.
In Binh Dinh Province in particular, seafood output reached 286,000 tonnes, an increase of 3.17% year on year. Meanwhile, Quang Ngai Province recorded a seafood output of 273,000 tonnes, up 1.8% over the same period last year.
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Nhon Ly Port in Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province busy with fishing vessels (Photo: cand.com.vn) |
In 2024, the two provinces target to achieve a joint output of more than 561,000 tonnes.
Currently, these two central coastal provinces also own a large number of offshore fishing vessels in the East Sea with around 11,600 fishing vessels, with a total capacity of 2,742,600 horsepower.
The local authorities have also been undertaking measures to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by strictly managing ships entering and leaving fishing ports, requiring local fishermen to maintain trip monitoring equipment to ensure fishing activities at sea, and requesting ship owners to regularly update their location information in order to promptly handle any violations.
According to statistics from the Binh Dinh Provincial Department of Fisheries, the total number of fishing vessels operating during the 2024 Lunar New Year was estimated at 3,250 vessels with 17,670 workers, an increase of nearly 600 vessels over the previous period.
Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Van Phuc said that Binh Dinh has the largest fleet of motorised fishing boats at sea in the country, with nearly 5,800 vessels and more than 41,000 workers working on the sea every day. The province's seafood exploitation is estimated at 250,000 tons per year.
In recent years, fishermen in the provinces of Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai have made bold investments in upgrading their fishing vessels, equipping them with modern equipment and fishing gear.
They have also applied science and technology in fishing operation, which has helped increase fishing output. At the same time, they have applied digital equipment and modern fishing and seafood preservation technologies to ensure sustainable operations and protect marine resources.
