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| Fishing boats are located at Ben Loi Port - Binh Chau (Xuyen Moc district). |
Depleted fishing grounds
Mr. Nguyen Trung Khuong, a fisherman in Binh Chau commune, Xuyen Moc district, has kept his fishing boat on shore since the Lunar New Year because squid fishing is no longer effective. “The fishing grounds are depleted, going to sea is always a loss, and it is difficult to find workers, so I had to let the boat rest,” said Mr. Khuong. According to the Ben Loi-Binh Chau Fishing Port Management Board, more than 50% of the 225 squid fishing boats here are on shore due to losses.
Phuoc Tinh Commune, Long Dat District also has more than 200 fishing boats lying on shore due to losses, no sea travel costs or insufficient departure documents. Mr. Nguyen Van Nho, owner of 3 pairs of offshore trawlers with a capacity of 500CV/boat, said that only 2/3 of the pairs have been operating since the beginning of the year. On average, every 10 days, the boats will bring back fish with a yield of 15-17 tons of fish, but 70% of them are dolphins that are specialized in supplying to factories for animal feed, so their value is low, with revenue reaching only 600-700 million VND/month, while the cost of fishing is 800 million VND/month/pair of boats.
Mr. Du Trung Hoang (Ward 4, Vung Tau City) has 5 logistics service ships that specialize in purchasing seafood from fishing boats at sea and transporting them to shore. Since the beginning of the year, due to ineffective fishing activities, he has only operated 2 ships, leaving 3 ships on shore. Previously, there was a trip to transport fish to shore every 5-7 days, but now there is only one trip every 15 days, with output dropping sharply from 20-30 tons to 12-15 tons/trip. After deducting expenses, the ship owner loses 100-200 million VND/ship.
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| Seafood arriving at Tan Phuoc port (Long Dat district) with many types of dolphins used as low-value animal feed. |
Difficulty in recruiting workers
In addition, the labor shortage has made fishermen even more miserable. Mr. Nguyen Van Nho said that each pair of boats needs 14-15 workers, but for the past 5 months, he only had enough people for 2 pairs of boats, and it was not until early this week that he recruited enough workers for the third pair.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh, a boat owner in Long Hai town (Long Dat district), is always short of workers despite having advanced salaries and high commissions. “I never recruit enough workers for my four boats. The workers are not committed and often change jobs,” Mr. Anh lamented.
The reason why many fishing boats lack crew is because the fishing grounds are depleted, the boats are losing money, so the income of workers is also decreasing sharply. If before, workers at sea had an income of 12-15 million VND/month, now it is only 7-8 million VND, even less than 5 million VND/person/month.
| According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the province currently has 4,913 fishing vessels, of which 2,411 are over 15m in length and operating offshore; 311 offshore fishing vessels are currently docked. The reasons are due to damaged vessels, business losses, insufficient expenses, lack of labor, or insufficient permits to leave port. |
According to Ms. Pham Thi Na, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, due to the decrease in income, fishing workers tend to switch to other occupations with higher income. In addition, participating in seafood exploitation activities are not only workers in the province but also workers from other provinces, mainly unskilled workers from the Western and North Central provinces. Because they are seasonal workers with no ties, workers in this field lack attachment to the ship owner and often quit or change jobs when other ship owners pay higher salaries.
In order to overcome difficulties in fishing and searching for and retaining workers on fishing boats, the province has recently opened many training courses for crew members, mechanics, and captains, as well as issued many policies to support fishermen in improving their fishing capacity, labor quality, increasing income and ensuring safety at sea.
Policies include: support for building new fishing vessels, fuel costs, hull and crew insurance; support for exploitation technology, product preservation; information equipment, journey monitoring; support for risks due to accidents, incidents and support for job conversion, reducing the number of vessels operating inshore.
“In the coming time, the fisheries sector will continue to implement solutions to develop sustainable fisheries, gradually reduce the number and increase the quality of offshore fishing fleets; arrange and restructure seafood exploitation and processing towards protecting aquatic resources,” said Ms. Na.
Article and photos: NGOC MINH
Source: https://baobariavungtau.com.vn/kinh-te/202506/thua-lo-va-thieu-lao-dong-tau-ca-nam-bo-1044245/
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