Recently, due to various reasons, the channel leading to Cua Tung fishing port has been seriously silted up, causing fishing vessels over 15 m in length to be unable to dock and forced to use small boats to transfer seafood for exploitation. This not only causes difficulties for fishermen but also affects the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The Cua Tung area, Ben Hai river section from Km0+00 to Km2+00 is being silted up and severely dried up - Photo: LA
Cua Tung fishing port is a place serving the fishing and exploitation activities of fishermen in Cua Tung town, Vinh Linh district, Trung Giang commune, Gio Linh district, neighboring communes and fishermen from other provinces.
However, due to the shallow channel, it is very difficult for fishing boats to enter and exit the port, especially fishing boats of 15 m or more in length and fishing boats of fishermen from other provinces. In order to sell the seafood they catch, fishermen are forced to anchor outside the estuary and use small boats to unload the products to bring them to shore. This inconvenience greatly affects the quality of the products, the income of fishermen and purchasing households.
Ms. Phan Thi Tu, who lives in An Hoa 1 Quarter, Cua Tung Town, one of the traders doing business at Cua Tung fishing port, said indignantly that her seafood purchasing facility used to purchase 20-30 tons of various types of seafood each month. But now the channel leading to the fishing port is silted up, offshore fishing boats cannot enter the port, so each month she can only purchase about 3-5 tons of seafood. Not only that, to purchase seafood, she has to hire a small boat to transport the seafood to shore at a cost of 600,000 VND/trip. “The channel leading to and from Cua Tung fishing port is silted up, which greatly affects us, the fishermen and traders. Seafood must be transported by small boats, increasing costs and reducing quality. I hope that all levels and sectors will pay attention and overcome this situation,” Ms. Tu said.
Faced with this situation, on May 7, 22 fishing boat owners inside and outside the province, fishing logistics service and business establishments submitted a petition to the People's Committee of Cua Tung town, Vinh Linh district regarding the shallow channel into the port, affecting fishermen's seafood exploitation and business in the Cua Tung fishing port area. After verifying the petition, on May 8, the People's Committee of Cua Tung town issued Document No. 54/TTr-UBND on dredging and clearing the channel at Cua Tung fishing port.
Accordingly, through the working process with the Cua Tung Border Guard Station, it was confirmed that from January 2024 to now, 12 local and foreign boats have run aground due to silting of the channel, of which 1 was severely damaged and had to be abandoned.
Due to the above reasons, boats with a length of 12 m or more inside and outside the locality cannot enter or exit the estuary, greatly affecting the exploitation of seafood by fishermen and business at Cua Tung fishing port.
According to statistics from the Quang Tri Fishing Port Management Board, since the beginning of the year, there have been only 21 fishing boats arriving and leaving the port, mainly local fishing boats that have to wait for the highest tide to enter and exit the port.
In particular, on January 22, fishing boat number BTh 99231TS, captained by Mr. Nguyen Truong Hoai in Tan Phuoc commune, La Gi district, Binh Thuan province, with 5 crew members on board, ran aground at the mouth of Cua Tung creek, about 100 meters from Cua Tung bridge, while on the way to the storm shelter area of Cua Tung. The fishermen were rescued in time, but the entire boat worth 1.6 billion VND sank and was completely damaged.
Not only affecting fishermen and small traders, the fact that fishing vessels cannot dock and are forced to use small boats to transfer exploited aquatic products to shore also causes difficulties in monitoring fishing vessels, collecting fishing logs, monitoring fishing output, certifying fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, confirming raw materials, certifying the origin of exploited aquatic products... While these are important contents in combating IUU fishing.
Director of Quang Tri Fishing Port Management Board Le Van Son said that, faced with the above situation, the unit has issued a document reporting the sedimentation status of the channel into Cua Tung fishing port and proposed solutions to ensure the rights of fishermen and strictly implement IUU regulations.
Vice Chairman of Vinh Linh District People's Committee Nguyen Anh Tuan said that, in the face of the serious silting of the channel in front of Cua Tung fishing port, in 2023, Vinh Linh District People's Committee issued Document No. 246/TTr-UBND dated August 18, 2023 on approving the plan: Urgent dredging, clearing the channel at Cua Tung fishing port combined with recovering the products after dredging as filling materials in the form of socialization, but up to now the above plan has not been approved. Currently, due to the impact of climate change, the complicated situation of rain and floods has caused the channel in front of Cua Tung fishing port to be increasingly seriously silted.
Currently, many sections of the channel are only about 0.5 - 1 m deep, causing difficulties for fishermen in exploiting aquatic products and greatly affecting business activities in the fishing port area. Since the beginning of the year, a number of fishing vessels have run aground at the channel to the fishing port, of which one fishing vessel was severely damaged, many fishing vessels with a length of 12 m or more have had to stay ashore, unable to go out to sea to exploit aquatic products, or unable to dock to unload exploited aquatic products, leading to difficulties in managing fishing vessels docking at ports and monitoring exploited aquatic product output, and performing the task of combating illegal IUU fishing.
In order to create favorable and safe conditions for fishing boats of fishermen, and effectively carry out the task of combating illegal fishing, on May 14, Vinh Linh District People's Committee continued to submit document No. 121/TTr-UBND requesting the Provincial People's Committee, departments and branches to consider and soon approve the plan: Urgent dredging, clearing the channel at Cua Tung fishing port combined with recovering the products after dredging as filling materials in the form of socialization. At the same time, initially allow Ngoc Tuan Cua Tung One Member Co., Ltd. to urgently dredging the channel at Cua Tung fishing port. The recovered products are gathered in Nam Son village, Trung Giang commune, Gio Linh district and Hoa Ly Hai quarter, Cua Tung town, Vinh Linh district.
On June 2, the Department of Transport also issued Document No. 1359/SGTVT-KCHT requesting the Inland Waterways Administration to propose to the Ministry of Transport to include dredging in the maintenance plan and promptly arrange funding to implement dredging to ensure traffic through the Cua Tung shoal area (Km0+00 to Km 2+00) on the national inland waterway route Ben Hai River.
Accordingly, currently the Cua Tung area, Ben Hai river from Km0+00 to Km2+00 is being silted up and severely dried up, in which the downstream section of Cua Tung bridge has sand dunes silted up, occupying almost the entire estuary, causing the shipping channel to change, zigzag in the shape of a Z, the width of the channel has a section
Recently, there have been many accidents and ship strandings, causing great damage to people's property and unsafe waterway traffic. Therefore, it is necessary to dredge soon to create favorable conditions for vehicles to operate safely in and out of the fishing port and the Cua Tung storm shelter, while increasing the flood drainage capacity of the Ben Hai River, creating conditions for businesses and fishermen to develop the economy; connecting the development of the fisheries industry between Quang Tri province and neighboring provinces, contributing to the implementation of the task of combating illegal fishing and IUU.
Regarding the implementation of collecting fishing logs, monitoring output, and certifying fishing vessels anchored in fishing port waters but unable to dock to unload products due to shallow access channels at Cua Tung fishing port, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Huu Vinh said that to ensure the fight against IUU fishing, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested the Quang Tri Fishing Port Management Board to coordinate with maritime safety agencies to notify the situation of waterways and signal buoys to ensure safety for fishing vessels entering and leaving Cua Tung fishing port. Upon receiving a notice requesting to dock at a fishing port from the captain of a fishing vessel, the captain must be informed of the situation of the waterway and, to ensure the safety of people and fishing vessels, not to dock at Cua Tung fishing port to unload aquatic products. At the same time, the captain must be instructed that currently in Quang Tri province, in addition to Cua Tung fishing port, there are also Cua Viet fishing port and Ben Ca Cho Cua Viet fishing port, which are fishing ports that have been announced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as designated fishing ports for the captain to choose and dock at the port to unload aquatic products and carry out other related procedures according to regulations.
Le An
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