Future for sustainable fishery: Restructuring fishing fleets

Managing fishing vessels is still difficult

Quang Ninh is a locality with a long coastline of 250 km, along with 40,000 ha of tidal flats and over 20,000 ha of straits and enclosed bays. With a convenient geographical feature, Quang Ninh waters are a gathering place for many different marine ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, coral reefs, sea grass, etc. Thereby creating rich and diverse aquatic resources, including many high-value aquatic products.

Bài liên quan

Future for sustainable fishery: Expectations in the new year

According to information from the Quang Ninh Department of Agriculture and Environment, the whole province has 6,216 fishing vessels in operation. Of which, 1,898 are vessels with a length of below 6 m; 3,570 are vessels with a length of 6-12 m; 483 are ships from 12 m to below 15 m in length; and 265 are fishing vessels of 15 m or more. The localities with a large number of ships include Quang Yen (2,145 ships, accounting for 34%) and Van Don (1,358 ships, accounting for 21.8%). However, there are also some localities with a small number of ships, such as Dong Trieu (95 ships), Uong Bi (100 ships), and Mong Cai (136 ships).

Sharing about the situation of nearshore fleet management, Mr. Phan Thanh Nghi, Deputy Director of the Quang Ninh Department of Agriculture and Environment, said, "Small vessels with coastal exploitation account for a large amount (over 88%), so the management and supervision work faced many difficulties. Because Quang Ninh waters are large with many islands and waterways, functional forces do not often cover all fishing grounds of the whole province.

Along with that, fishermen's exploitation activities are increasingly sophisticated, with many illegal fishing forms and tricks when functional forces are absent. In particular, there is still a situation of fishing vessels operating by banned professions and using prohibited fishing tools to exploit aquatic species in the destruction style, affecting the environment as well as the management work.

On the other hand, the small fleet is not eligible for conversion and exploitation in inshore and offshore waters. Meanwhile, these are the areas expected to have a lot of potential for fishing. In addition, the awareness and consciousness of a part of fishermen are not good. In fact, there have been sea areas with signs of excessive exploitation that reduce aquatic resources, seriously affecting the natural ecosystem.

Currently, the rate of granting exploitation licenses for fishing vessels from 6 m to less than 12 m in length under the district authority is only 2,495/3,570 ships, only reaching 69.9%. The main reason is that in addition to the localities reaching 100%, such as Mong Cai, Hai Ha, and Uong Bi, there are still localities with low licensing rates, such as Van Don (19.4%) and Co To (65.4%). This greatly affects the overcoming of the EC's "yellow card."

Therefore, in order to develop the fishery sustainably, Quang Ninh province sets an orientation of consolidating and perfecting the offshore fleet in order to ensure this fleet is safe and fully equipped, thereby improving productivity, storing products well, increasing economic efficiency, and contributing to the protection of the Fatherland's sea and island sovereignty.

In 2024, the Quang Ninh Department of Agriculture and Environment held 42 patrols, inspections, and controls against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the local waters. Accordingly, functional forces organized legal dissemination for more than 10,000 turns for fishing vessel owners, captains, and crew members.

At the same time, detect 282 cases of administrative violations in the field of fishing, issuing a decision to sanction 271 cases with the amount of nearly VND 2.7 billion. The remaining 11 cases are completing the handling records in accordance with the law.

Promote the effectiveness of the offshore fishing fleet

According to the province's orientation, from 2026, the number of small fishing vessels that exploit inefficiently and are dilapidated old will be reduced by about 5-7%/year. Along with that, the province will develop policies to support people to suit the actual conditions of the province.

According to information from the Quang Ninh Department of Agriculture and Environment, in 2024, the province reviewed all fishing vessels and reduced 287 vehicles that were ineligible, solved, or not guaranteed safety, and 339 vehicles switched to aquaculture activities.

On the other hand, the province issued Decision No. 2396/QD-UBND dated August 19, 2024, of the Provincial People's Committee on "Assigning fishing license quotas for fishing vessels with the largest length of 6 m to under 15 m operating in coastal and inshore areas in Quang Ninh province." Accordingly, localities and the province have granted sufficient fishing vessel quotas according to the current situation, so there will be no new fishing vessels in the coming time.

Along with the plan to reduce the small fleet, Quang Ninh is determined to modernize and improve the effectiveness of the offshore fleet through the positive impacts of the support policies that the province has implemented. Typically, supporting investment interest rates for production and business development; encouraging the development of concentrated agricultural goods, etc.

Thereby helping to restructure production in the direction of bringing a bigger and more sustainable value. This is because on large-capacity ships, fishermen have the conditions to apply modern science and technology to detect and select the fishing object, preserve post-harvest products, and warn about weather changes, significantly limiting methods that destroy resources and protecting the environment better.

In recent years, realizing the great potential of fishing, many fishermen boldly built new ships with a large capacity of 680-750CV to be able to sail away and exploit new areas. Thanks to that, the output of fishing and product quality will be increasingly improved, thereby increasing the income for fishermen.

Mr. Luu Van Duy, the Standing Committee of the Fishing Vessel Inspection and Control Team at Cai Rong fishing port, provided information that currently, the number of large ships has increased gradually, replacing small-capacity ships lacking safe equipment. Along with that, with the consensus of local fishermen and the drasticness of the local government and functional sector, the forms of fishing in the destruction style and by banned professions in the waters were repelled, ensuring stable and safe exploitation.

In order to develop the fishery sustainably, replacing the small fleet of coastal fishing with inshore and offshore fleets is a key factor to gradually create a change, contributing to affirming the position and contribution of the fishery to the local economic development process.

Ha Long city is building and making detailed planning (1/500 scale) of the project "Hon Gai fishing port combined with storm shelter and fishery logistics areas in Ha Phong ward," with a total estimated budget of about VND 600 billion. The project will conduct dredging to clear the flow of the downstream area and the Cai Xa Cong anchoring area; build a provincial-level storm shelter area for about 600 ships; construct a new fishery logistics area, an ancient fishing village museum, a waiting house for visitors and ship sailors, a parking lot, and a road system.

* USD 1 = VND 25,350 ( Exchange rate updated on March 21, 2025; Source: Vietcombank)