Improving the efficiency of fisheries exploitation through the application of new technology

Keeping up with the digitalization trend, in recent times, fishermen in Quang Tri province have actively applied digital transformation and modern equipment in fishing. Thereby, improving fishing efficiency and ensuring maritime safety during operations at sea.

Fishing boats of fishermen in Cua Viet town, Gio Linh district apply modern equipment in seafood exploitation - Photo: LA

In order to ensure safety for sea trips and reduce travel time to fishing grounds, in 2023, fisherman Nguyen Van Ngoc in Cua Viet town, Gio Linh district, owner of fishing boat number QT 92756TS, invested 50 million VND to install an automatic steering device for his fishing boat. Mr. Ngoc said that the automatic steering device includes 4 main components: an electronic compass integrated with GPS with high accuracy in many different types of weather with an error of +/- 0.050, helping to determine position and stabilize the direction of travel; a 7-inch control screen with an integrated data processing system; a rudder angle feedback unit designed to suit standard marine steering and clutch steering systems.

According to Mr. Ngoc, the advantage of the automatic steering device is that it is easy to operate, just select the direction or destination coordinates on the screen with the ability to save up to 20 points. Control with 4 flexible driving modes including: steering wheel; Remote driving; direction driving; point driving. In which, the Remote driving function helps the boat driver to move away from the cockpit but still be able to control the fishing boat as when driving with the steering wheel.

In addition, to ensure safety when driving automatically, the device also has warning alarm functions for the captain such as: deviation alarm, rudder overload, motion sensor, cruise speed warning and destination alarm... In particular, the device also has an anti-sleep alarm sensor; alarm when detecting no one on guard in the cabin to ensure safety for people and fishing vessels operating at sea.

Mr. Ngoc said that his fishing boat has a capacity of over 400 CV, works in the offshore trawling industry and often participates in fishing in far-off waters. The biggest difficulty for him and other fishing boats is having to steer the boat continuously for dozens of hours, sometimes falling asleep and easily losing control, deviating from the destination coordinates, leading to unsafe fishing boats and wasting fuel.

But since installing the autopilot, he only needs to choose the direction or set the destination coordinates and the machine will automatically steer the fishing boat to the right location with the shortest distance. Thereby, not only ensuring the health of the driver but also reducing travel time to the fishing grounds, saving fuel, maximizing profits for each trip.

“On average, each trip at sea saves me about 4-5 million VND in fuel costs compared to before. In particular, I no longer have to constantly look at the compass to adjust the steering direction. Not to mention, I can take advantage of my free time at sea to rest or do other work without having to worry about the fishing boat going off course like before,” said Mr. Ngoc.

As for fisherman Bui Dinh Chien in Cua Viet town, the owner of three fishing boats over 15 meters long, said that in the past, every time he went out to sea, his fishing boats often lost signal and could not contact his family and the shore station of the Department of Fisheries. But since installing the journey monitoring device, the signal has been updated to the mainland 24/7.

The entire process of operations at sea is updated on the system and the ship owner can easily check it in the application on the phone, thereby having an effective exploitation route. In addition, when encountering adverse weather or a fishing boat in distress at sea, the positioning device will quickly send a support signal, the rescue force will easily find the exact location of the fishing boat.

“Since installing the voyage monitoring device, there is no need to follow the fishing boats out to sea. With just a smartphone with internet connection, I can stay at home and know exactly where my fishing boats are fishing at sea. Once a fishing boat enters an unauthorized area, the device will send out a warning signal so that we can control the fishing area,” Mr. Chien added.

According to the Director of the Fisheries Sub-Department Phan Huu Thang, in recent years, fishermen in the province have boldly applied modern equipment in fishing such as satellite positioning devices on fishing boats; ultrasonic fish finders that have been upgraded and improved through generations such as: vertical, horizontal and photographic detection; radar devices for net management, collision avoidance at sea; automatic identification devices AIS to ensure safety for people and fishing boats when operating at sea; HF shortwave communication devices, medium-range and long-range communication devices and up to now, communication devices with integrated satellite positioning have been applied...

Regarding fishing vessel management, up to now, 188/190 fishing vessels with a length of 15 m or more have installed voyage monitoring equipment, reaching 98.94%. Data for 440 fishing vessels has been updated in the National Fisheries Database System (VNFishbase), reaching 100%. This is a fairly comprehensive database, managing information on fishing vessel registration, inspection, fishing quotas, fishing licenses; data on fishing ports, storm shelters; data on logs, fishing reports; confirmation of exploited aquatic materials; certification of origin of exploited aquatic products...

Every time a ship docks, fishermen complete procedures to certify the origin of the exploited seafood. They only need to enter the fishing vessel number into the VNFishbase System to know the journey of the fishing vessel at sea, as a basis for confirming the origin of the seafood. Through the VNFishbase System, the goal is to monitor and manage 100% of the digital information of fishing vessels' activities from the time they leave the port to exploit, dock to unload products, to registration as well as the data system of exploitation and trading of fishermen.

According to Mr. Thang, the Department of Fisheries is currently working with relevant units to deploy the Electronic Traceability Software System for Exploited Aquatic Products (CDT VN) running on IOS and Android operating systems to control fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, collect and submit fishing logs, monitor the volume of aquatic products unloaded through ports, issue receipts, raw material certificates and certificates of origin of exploited aquatic products according to regulations.

This is an electronic seafood traceability application software developed and deployed nationwide by the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; implementing traceability for domestically exploited seafood products.

The application will ensure the functions of all participating parties including: fishermen, seafood processing factories, fishing port management organizations, border guards, and fisheries departments in accordance with legal procedures, helping to make traceability steps transparent, moving towards fully automating the process to replace the current paper-based traceability.

This is also one of the important solutions to remove the European Union (EC)'s "yellow card" warning for Vietnamese seafood products.

Le An

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/nang-cao-hieu-qua-khai-thac-thuy-san-nho-ung-dung-cong-nghe-moi-187773.htm