Accompanying fishermen

This is a very meaningful program organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper in coordination with the Provincial People's Committee right at the time when fishermen are entering the winter season - the low season for the fishing industry. After more than 20 years in the profession, he has gone through countless life-and-death sea trips, but Mr. Ly Van Quan (Ward 2 - Hung Long Ward) still perseveres in sticking to the sea despite his current unstable income. "The seafood resources have never been as low as this year. I have participated in the sea trip for more than a month, but after deducting all expenses, each crew member only gets 3 - 5 million VND, down more than half compared to previous years. Since the beginning of the year, the family's income has only been around 20 - 30 million VND," Mr. Quan shared. Mr. Quan is one of 3 fishing families in difficult circumstances that the Organizing Committee of the program "Lighting up the lights at sea with fishermen" visited directly. As the main breadwinner in the family, having to raise two school-age children, his wife is constantly sick, all the responsibilities are heavier on the shoulders of a man who has lived and died with the sea all his life. In particular, to raise his eldest child to complete his university degree, he has to work twice as hard, not daring to miss any sea trips even though sometimes his health does not allow it. When someone asked "Have you ever thought of quitting the sea and going ashore to make a living?", Mr. Quan was very determined: "This is the family's traditional profession, although I know that the sea profession is very hard and arduous, but because I consider the boat as my home, the sea as my homeland, and have been attached to the fishing village for generations, I will only quit when my health does not allow it anymore."

Going offshore and sticking to the sea is not only a difficult journey for fishermen to make a living, but also contributes to affirming and protecting the country's sovereignty over the sea and islands. Not only that, how to make Binh Thuan fishermen clearly aware of both exploiting seafood and protecting and conserving the diverse ecosystem of the province's sea, as well as being determined to remove the IUU yellow card for Vietnamese seafood. This is also the main purpose of the program, both caring for and promptly supporting fishermen in difficulty, and being a solid foundation for fishermen to confidently go offshore and stick to the sea.

Many policies for fishermen

As one of the three largest fishing grounds in the country, Binh Thuan is proud to be a province with a long-standing fishing tradition with more than 7,500 fishing vessels with about 45,000 direct workers on board and tens of thousands of other workers in the logistics, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors. In recent years, the Provincial People's Committee has paid special attention to and mobilized resources to invest in and upgrade fishing port infrastructure, boat anchorage areas to serve storm shelters for fishing vessels and unload seafood for fishermen; effectively implementing support policies for fishermen in fishing activities and seafood logistics services in offshore areas. In addition, the Provincial People's Council has issued a resolution stipulating a support policy for the cost of purchasing and installing equipment to monitor fishing vessel journeys with a support level of 10 million VND for each fishing vessel. Most recently, the Provincial Party Standing Committee has agreed to support the subscription fee for satellite services and VMS equipment for fishing vessels, in order to strictly implement the direction of the Prime Minister and the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), together with the whole country to remove the "Yellow Card" of the European Commission, moving towards building a responsible and sustainable fishing industry.

Not only that, in recent years, the Provincial People's Committee has paid special attention to and cared for the lives of coastal fishing communities through policies on economic development, job creation and social welfare. Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Phan Van Dang affirmed that, together with the whole country, Binh Thuan province has made efforts and focused on drastically implementing tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing. The EC's "yellow card" warning for Vietnamese seafood has greatly affected seafood exports to the European market and especially Vietnam's reputation in the international arena. Therefore, Mr. Phan Van Dang called on all levels, sectors, especially fishermen to join hands and unite with local authorities to fight IUU fishing and remove the EC's yellow card warning. At the same time, he requested fishermen to strictly comply with the provisions of the law when participating in seafood exploitation activities, especially not to violate foreign waters, and to pay attention to protecting the environment and marine ecosystems.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper Nguyen Thai Binh also acknowledged that Binh Thuan sea area is one of the few important and best coastal upwelling sea areas in the world, with typical ecological and environmental conditions, extremely favorable for the development of marine life. This has both created a great advantage for Binh Thuan to develop its marine economy and set an important task in protecting and preserving this typical ecosystem. Through specific and practical activities, it is hoped that it will effectively contribute to raising the awareness of law compliance of fishermen when participating in fishing at sea; awareness of protecting the marine environment, protecting the internal resources of the sea. Thereby, contributing to the development of the province's marine economy in association with sustainable values. At the same time, the program also hopes to be a bridge for the social community to join hands to support fishermen to confidently stick to the sea, affirm and preserve the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland.

Binh Thuan is the 9th coastal locality to organize the program "Lighting up the sea with fishermen" this year with 200 gifts, each worth more than 4 million VND, given to 200 fishing households in the province. In addition, the Organizing Committee also awarded 40 scholarships to children of fishermen in difficult circumstances who have overcome difficulties to study well. In the 3 years from 2023 to 2025, the program is expected to be implemented in 28 coastal provinces and cities nationwide. A total of 5,600 fishermen will receive gifts with a total implementation cost of more than 30 billion VND.