Towards a prosperous life

Large capacity fishing vessels help fishermen in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province improve seafood exploitation productivity

Get rich by sea

With a coastline of more than 305km and over 100,000 km2 of continental shelf, a large fishing ground, and abundant aquatic resources, Ba Ria - Vung Tau is a locality with many potentials and strengths for developing the exploitation and capture of aquatic products. For generations, people in coastal areas such as Vung Tau City, Long Dien, Dat Do, Xuyen Moc districts and Con Dao island district (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) have persisted with their traditional occupations and many fishermen have become rich thanks to their fishing and going offshore.

According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, the province currently has 4,664 fishing vessels. Most of the vessels are invested with advanced machinery and equipment such as fish finders, positioning devices, depth meters, long-range radios, etc. Every year, the seafood exploitation sector creates jobs for more than 40,000 workers. The annual output is about 358,634 tons.

With more than 40 years of fishing, the family of fisherman Nguyen Trinh residing in Phuoc Tinh commune (Long Dien district) is considered a family with a tradition of being attached to the sea exploitation profession. Because up to now, his family has had 03 generations working in the field of exploiting and catching seafood. Thanks to the sea profession, his family is more prosperous and increasingly "prosperous". After a long time working in the seafood exploitation profession, he has saved up to buy 8 fishing boats with a capacity of over 5,000 CV.

Currently, his family earns more than 1 billion VND per year. Mr. Trinh shared: “The sea has provided seafood, fish and shrimp to feed the family and take care of the children; it is a valuable asset, so I always encourage my children and grandchildren to love and stick with the traditional profession of their ancestors. Thanks to that, until today, my children and grandchildren still persistently stick with the profession, going out to sea to fish.”

Talking about his fishing career, fisherman Nguyen Dinh Ngoc, in Ward 2 (Vung Tau City) said: in 1992, he moved from Binh Dinh to Vung Tau City to start a business. At that time, he asked to work as an assistant on a fishing boat; by 2004, he had saved up and borrowed more money to build a boat worth 2 billion VND to start his own business.
Mr. Ngoc shared that in the past, although seafood resources were abundant, the equipment on the boats was very rudimentary, and the nets were pulled by hand, so the catch was not much, each trip in 1 month only yielded about 10 tons.

In addition, the small wooden fish hold did not preserve the fish well after catching, only keeping them 40% fresh when they returned to shore, and the fish lost their value, so the family's economy was always in a difficult situation. However, from 2014 until now, thanks to the policy of supporting capital for fishermen to build large, modern fishing boats for offshore fishing, while contributing to protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands, I boldly registered to build a composite hull boat with a capacity of 820CV, a 15km long net with good net material, modern machinery, worth more than 10 billion VND/boat.

Up to now, also from the State's support capital, I have invested in 3 more fishing boats with large capacity, going far offshore, so the exploitation output is highly effective. Thanks to that, the family has had a stable source of income, life has developed. At the same time, it also created jobs for many workers; helping their families escape poverty sustainably.

Coordinate with agencies and organizations to support freshwater tanks for fishermen to go offshore and stay at sea.

Sustainable development

Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, said: In recent years, exploiting the marine economy has become a driving force for the province's economic and social development, helping fishermen change their lives. Thanks to hard work, many fishermen have not only escaped poverty but also enriched their families and hometowns from the fishing profession they have been attached to, thanks to which many coastal areas have improved day by day.

To continue promoting the development of the marine economy and effectively exploiting marine resources, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province has planned to develop the seafood exploitation industry in the direction of gradually reducing occupations that harm resources and the ecological environment; developing environmentally friendly occupations such as offshore purse seine, offshore trawling, offshore fishing combined with squid fishing, etc. Implementing fishing infrastructure projects at fishing ports and storm shelters; continuing to effectively implement policies to support seafood exploitation in offshore areas, thereby encouraging fishermen to invest in building new and converting offshore vessels to stay at sea for longer periods, bringing higher exploitation efficiency.

At the same time, continue to review and replicate poverty reduction models in localities by supporting means for fishermen in particularly difficult circumstances, helping them have means of fishing and feel secure at sea. At the same time, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province will focus on accelerating the investment progress of concentrated processing zones in the locality, to complete the relocation of all enterprises and processing facilities to concentrated areas to ensure wastewater treatment and control of environmental pollution from the operations of processing plants.

Focus on developing high-value export processing types such as: quick-frozen boiled shrimp, refined products, instant seafood products, squid rolls, instant steamed shrimp rolls, canned seafood to serve the needs of tourists visiting the province and for export, thereby creating jobs, improving people's lives, and contributing to sustainable socio-economic development of the locality.

In addition, the province continues to promote propaganda work on seas and islands, in which, it promotes the responsibility of all levels, sectors and localities in comprehensively, synchronously and in-depthly implementing the program of coordinating propaganda on seas and islands in a practical and effective manner, combining with mobilizing funds for Vietnam's seas and islands to promote the combined strength of the political system and social community to participate in the task of building and protecting the sovereignty of the seas and islands of the Fatherland.

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