Develop the sustainable fisheries industry: The role of fishermen

In recent years, the leading seafood groups, such as small pelagic fish and large pelagic fish in our country's waters, have tended to decline to varying degrees, in which bottom seafood resources have sharply declined. The rate of decline is highest in the Central Coast region, with about 57%. According to 2022 statistics, our country's mining output will reach 3.86 million tons, down 1.8% compared to 2021, with marine mining output alone decreasing by 2%.

Mr. Le Tran Nguyen Hung, Head of the Department of Aquatic Resources Protection and Development (Department of Fisheries Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that aquatic reserves in our country have not only decreased, but many species have disappeared. This is the consequence of a long period when we have been unable to control the number of fishing vessels appropriate to each sea area and the resources allowed for exploitation. In addition, people's awareness of resource protection issues is still not high.

In fact, in coastal provinces, illegal fishing activities such as using electric shock explosives... still take place. Some localities still maintain many fishing boats engaged in destructive fishing, such as lazy fishing and trawling. "In a trawl, only 10% is commercial fish, and the rest is fish for food. The post-mining loss rate is also quite large, about 30%. This is a huge problem and challenge for the fisheries industry and the protection and development of aquatic resources," Mr. Hung said.

According to Mr. Hung, to solve the problem at its root, it is necessary to change people's awareness and fish responsibly and wisely. Along with that is the awareness of participating in protecting aquatic resources to ensure long-term livelihoods. In addition, leaders of provinces and cities must also regularly inspect to promptly detect and have solutions to deal with illegal exploitation that affects the natural ecosystem.

"The first thing leaders should pay attention to is investigating species not only in the sea but also in the inland areas: how many species there are in that area, how many ecosystems, and the amount of seafood. Once you have this information, you can be proactive with solutions and plans to protect and develop. In restricted areas, law enforcement will be carried out. Management will be assigned to the community for protected areas," Mr. Hung proposed.

The protection of aquatic resources is indispensable for the people. People are identified as the center of direction. In some localities, fishing community groups have shown relatively straightforward effectiveness. In Quang Nam province, the Ba Dau Reef seafood protection community group (Tam Tien commune, Nui Thanh district) is a typical example.

Currently, this community group has 43 members assigned to manage 64 hectares of water surface. Team members are responsible for organizing, managing, patrolling, controlling, and handling violations related to aquaculture, seafood exploitation, and protection of aquatic resources. The object that needs to be protected that the community group is aiming for is the coral reef ecosystem, including coral and marine species living in the coral reef area (seaweed, mother lobsters carrying eggs, lobster breeds, turtles).

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Uy, Vice Chairman of Tam Tien Commune People's Committee, in addition to protection activities, the community group has developed a plan to orient households to exploit aquatic resources sustainably, protecting the environment associated with tourism activities, create a healthy competition mechanism and build a chain of links between fishing households and tourism businesses, contributing to improving lives and increasing income for households.

Regarding policy issues to achieve the goal of protecting aquatic resources, Mr. Le Tran Nguyen Hung informed that currently, the unit is implementing 3 programs, including: Planning to preserve and exploit aquatic resources; National program on protecting aquatic resources and project on establishing and expanding marine protected areas and ecosystem restoration areas.

According to the orientation to 2030, in addition to 27 marine protected areas, Vietnam will establish and delineate about 268 aquatic resource marine protected areas, including 149 on sea (59 aquatic resource protection areas, 63 prohibited marine resource protection areas and 27 artificial habitats), and 119 areas inland.