Investing in technology to improve the efficiency of fisheries exploitation

Along with building and upgrading boats, in recent years, fishermen in the province have invested in purchasing equipment and applying many new technologies to exploiting aquatic products. Thereby, they have drastically changed fishing methods, improved production efficiency, contributed to increasing income and minimizing risks for fishermen.

Fishermen unload seafood from offshore fishing boats at Cua Viet fishing port - Photo: LA

After a period of using the improved hydraulic winch system on his offshore fishing vessel QT 94619TS, fisherman Vo Van Hung, in Cua Viet town, Gio Linh district, highly appreciated the advantages that this device brings.

According to Mr. Hung, the improved hydraulic winch has the advantage of being easy to disassemble, easy to use, stable operation, no problems, no loose ropes when collecting nets in weather conditions of big waves and strong winds. Unlike the friction winch that can only collect nets on one side of the ship, the improved hydraulic winch can rotate 360 degrees and collect nets on both sides of the ship, the net collection speed is faster, helping to reduce the net collection time to about 2/3 compared to before, allowing fishing boats to be equipped with 90 - 120 additional nets, helping to increase output, product quality and economic efficiency.

In particular, the safety level compared to traditional friction winches is also much higher because when collecting and releasing the net, fishermen do not have to directly remove and install the connecting rope, do not have to pull the auxiliary rope when collecting the net in windy conditions at sea; reducing 2 workers when collecting and releasing the net, contributing to solving the current shortage of seafaring workers on offshore fishing vessels.

Similarly, to reduce post-harvest losses and improve product quality, recently, many fishermen have applied Composite Polyurethane Foam (CPF) technology to build storage tanks to replace traditional storage tanks made of wood and foam materials.

Fisherman Le Van Tuan, captain of fishing boat QT 90929TS, in Gio Viet commune, Gio Linh district, said that the advantage of CPF technology is that due to the use of PU insulation material, the cellar can stay cold longer, preserve products better, and the amount of ice used for cooling is less lost.

Through actual sea trips, the amount of ice lost has been reduced by 20 - 30% compared to traditional storage tanks, increasing the value of the product by 1,000 - 2,000 VND/kg compared to other fishing vessels that do not use this technology. Thereby, helping to extend the time of the sea trip, reduce costs, and increase economic efficiency by 15 - 20% compared to before. At the same time, the use of stainless steel and PU materials has helped the product meet food hygiene and safety standards.

According to the Director of the Department of Fisheries Phan Huu Thang, the application of technology in fisheries exploitation has contributed significantly to improving exploitation output and product quality.

Specifically, a number of fishing gears have been successfully transferred to fishermen such as mixed gillnets, grab nets, lead-pull seine nets combined with light, 3-layer gillnets on offshore vessels; high-beam gillnets, bar gillnets, gillnets for catching pompano for coastal vessels; squid traps, snail and crab traps... In which, mixed gillnet fishing is a highly effective model and contributes to protecting aquatic resources for more sustainable development.

In addition, in order to reduce labor, limit the number of workers on board to increase economic efficiency, fishermen have recently focused on investing in mechanization in fishing activities such as hydraulic winches for mixed trawling and purse seine fishing; rope winches on purse seine fishing boats; hydraulic winches for catching crabs and snails.

Up to now, most fishing vessels using mixed trawling use hydraulic winches to collect the nets, especially on steel-hulled vessels, up to 2 machines are used. On purse seine and trap vessels, hydraulic winches are used to collect the main ropes.

This has greatly reduced labor, improved the gold net to be higher and longer than before, increased the number of traps and exploited at greater depths. In addition, to increase and reduce post-exploitation losses, fishermen have widely used product preservation tunnels using PU material with good heat retention, helping to preserve products for longer periods than traditional preservation tunnels.

Regarding marine equipment, satellite positioning devices have been applied on fishing vessels; ultrasonic fish finders have been upgraded and improved through generations such as vertical, horizontal and photographic detection. Radar is applied to manage nets and avoid collisions at sea. Automatic identification system AIS is used to ensure safety for people and fishing vessels when operating at sea.

From using HF shortwave communication devices, medium-range and long-range communication devices, up to now, most of the offshore fishing boats have put into use communication devices with integrated satellite positioning. Installing journey monitoring devices on fishing boats and electronic maritime log recording devices. Currently, in the province, 2 establishments have been established to build steel-hulled and wooden-hulled ships. These are the first establishments to successfully apply steel-hulled fishing boat building technology in Quang Tri.

According to Mr. Thang, in the coming time, relevant sectors of the province and coastal localities need to promote the dissemination of high technology applications, combined with the synchronous implementation of solutions to strictly control fishing activities without causing negative impacts on the ecological environment and marine biological resources, ensuring natural balance for sustainable development. In addition, there should be support mechanisms and policies for fishermen to invest in modern technology, increasing the value of seafood exploitation in each trip to sea.

Le An

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