Nghe An fishermen seek career change

Career change in coastal commune of Quynh Long

Quynh Long Commune (Quynh Luu) is a locality with a long-standing tradition of seafood fishing, with the largest fishing fleet in the province. Unlike before, the story of getting rich from the sea, now people are also interested in their children switching to other industries and jobs for stable income, making the village and hamlet much more bustling.

A corner of the coastal commune of Quynh Long, Quynh Luu district today. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Putting her phone down on the table after talking to her son who is studying at the Naval Academy, Ms. Vu Thi Van in Dai Bac village, Quynh Long commune, Quynh Luu district could not hide her joy: The couple has 3 children, the eldest is 26 years old this year, the youngest is 20 years old. At this age, they used to follow their father to sea to exploit seafood, but the children are determined to study at universities and colleges. Not only the children, but her husband, Mr. Dao Minh Cau, has also switched from the traditional profession of catching seafood to working on cargo ships for several years now.

“He himself went to sea with his father when he was 16 years old. After 33 years of fishing at sea, he has become an experienced fisherman with professional skills. The seafaring profession has brought income and built a home for his family. However, instead of inheriting his father's position as captain, he decided to switch to working as a worker on a domestic cargo ship, with a stable salary of nearly 20 million VND/month,” Ms. Vu Thi Van confided.

The joy of fishermen after each long sea trip. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Not only Ms. Van’s family, many young workers in this coastal commune have also switched to working in onshore industries and occupations. The most common is still labor export and working as factory workers. Therefore, the number of seafaring workers is gradually decreasing. “Nowadays, finding long-term fishing partners is harder than finding big fish,” said fisherman Tran Dinh Thien in Quynh Long commune.

Secretary of the Quynh Long Commune Party Committee, Mr. Ho Nhat Anh confided: As a locality with a long-standing tradition of seafaring, at its peak, Quynh Long Commune had 86 large-capacity fishing boats, but now the number has decreased to 35. One of the reasons for the decrease in the fishing fleet is the shortage of marine labor.

In the last days of 2023, fishermen in Hoang Mai town had a big seafood catch. Photo: Thanh Yen

Young workers are no longer interested in the sea and have developed local service jobs such as: hairdressing, beauty, construction, electronics repair, civil electricity, refrigeration... In particular, women who used to only know how to mend nets and sell fish at the market have now switched to working as factory workers. Statistics show that before 2010, Quynh Long commune had 70% of its workers going to sea and sea-related jobs, but now this number has decreased to 40%.

“As society develops, people switching to other industries and professions is the right direction, in line with the new trend. When children work in other industries and professions, people’s awareness changes, and their economic thinking becomes more dynamic,” Mr. Ho Nhat Anh shared.

Bustling Lach Van Fishing Port (Dien Chau) in the first days of the year. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Orientation of Dien Ngoc

Dien Ngoc Commune is known as a dynamic coastal area of ​​Dien Chau District. Not only fishing at sea, people here also develop many industries such as service business, fishing logistics, seafood processing... The whole commune has more than 7,700 people, of which 3,000 people are related to fishing and fishing logistics, the rest are in other industries and occupations.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Vice Chairman of Dien Ngoc Commune People's Committee said that in addition to solutions to improve the efficiency of seafood exploitation, the locality is making efforts to expand and diversify other industries and occupations to increase people's income. Currently, the whole commune has 47 enterprises, nearly 2,000 production and commercial service establishments, of which there are 117 fishing logistics service establishments with revenue of hundreds of billions of VND each year. This is a new direction that is attracting the attention of Dien Ngoc commune people.

Traders buy seafood right at the fishing port in Nghe An. Photo: Xuan Hoang

“For the past two years, Dien Ngoc commune has started implementing a career conversion project in two directions: First, the local government has promoted and guided young people of working age to increase their overseas labor export and work in companies and factories... Among them, a shipping company in Hai Phong has recruited nearly 300 young people to work on cargo ships. This is a job suitable for seafarers, when working on cargo ships, they receive a salary of 30 - 40 million VND/month.

The second direction is to encourage fishermen to switch from trawling to other environmentally friendly occupations such as purse seine, hooking, scooping, etc. Due to the effective conversion of occupations, Dien Ngoc commune has so far reduced the number of fishing vessels from 456 to 232, and by 2030 it will be reduced to only 100 fishing vessels," Mr. Nguyen Van Dung shared.

Large boats and big engines of Nghe An fishermen go out to sea. Photo: Xuan Hoang

In recent years, in addition to solutions to improve the efficiency of seafood exploitation, the authorities of the coastal communes of Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai town... are making efforts to expand the diversity of occupations and shift the labor structure. Every year, Dien Chau district has nearly 500 coastal workers going abroad to work, and thousands of workers working in factories in industrial parks inside and outside the district.

Mr. Bui Xuan Truc - Deputy Head of the District's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that currently, the whole district has more than 20% of seafarers switching to other industries and occupations.

Nghe An currently has a fleet of 3,336 fishing vessels. The province's goal is to reduce the number of fishing vessels to 3,250 by 2030.