Quang Tri province has a coastline of nearly 75 km, offshore Con Co island and a large fishing ground of over 8,400 km2, with aquatic reserves of about 60,000 tons/year with many rare species of high economic value. In addition, the area of the estuary tidal zone and coastal sand area is over 3,500 hectares. These are favorable conditions for the synchronous development of both exploitation and aquaculture to develop aquaculture into a key economic sector.
Offshore fishing fleet of fishermen is anchored at Cua Viet fishing port - Photo: LA
Fleet modernization
According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has nearly 2,300 boats of all kinds with a total capacity of over 140,100 CV participating in fishing, of which 184 fishing boats with a length of 15 m or more are fully equipped with fishing gear and modern equipment such as communication devices, journey monitoring devices, fish finders... convenient for long-term fishing at sea.
This powerful fishing fleet is bringing the province an annual catch of approximately 27,000 tons. It is estimated that the province's total seafood output in the first 6 months of 2024 will reach over 18,360 tons, an increase of 4.3% over the same period last year. Of which, the output from exploitation is over 14,800 tons, and the aquaculture output is over 3,500 tons, creating jobs for over 17,000 workers of working age.
Gio Linh is a locality with a large number of fishing vessels with more than 860 mechanical fishing and service vessels, with a total capacity of 101,590 CV; of which 217 fishing vessels are 6 m or longer in length. The district's offshore fishing fleet has 168 vessels, the rest exploit offshore and nearshore areas. The total annual aquatic product output is from 15,000 - 16,000 tons.
Le Van Toan, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Gio Linh district, said that previously, the district's fishing fleet had low capacity, mostly wooden-hulled boats, lacking safety equipment, rudimentary product preservation systems, high loss rates, low product quality, and not many products meeting export needs.
However, through the support policies of the State and the efforts of fishermen, Gio Linh has become the district with the most powerful fleet in the province. In the current period, the district's policy is to gradually reduce the number of small boats operating inshore, and encourage the gradual increase of large-capacity boats.
The ship is fully equipped with safety equipment such as long-range communication system, satellite positioning, journey monitoring equipment; new and modern fishing technologies such as using fish finders, improved hydraulic winches, automatic ship steering, PU storage tanks... Thereby, increasing fishing output, product quality, reducing post-exploitation losses.
Head of the Fisheries Sub-Department Phan Huu Thang affirmed that the policy of modernizing fishing vessels has brought about very practical results and thanks to this policy, fishermen have the conditions to access and equip their fishing vessels with modern equipment, ensuring safety for people and vehicles when operating and exploiting at sea.
Ensuring the ability to operate in all fishing grounds in Vietnam's waters. The development of the fleet in the direction of reducing the number of small-capacity vessels and increasing the number of large-capacity vessels will reduce the pressure on coastal fisheries exploitation, one of the important factors for restoring fishery resources.
Along with that, production teams were established to help fishermen exchange information about fishing grounds, weather, and other risks, thereby improving operational efficiency and minimizing losses when risks occur. Support policies such as Decision 48 of the Prime Minister help fishermen feel secure in staying at sea in conditions where the market is always subject to unpredictable fluctuations.
In addition, not only supporting fishermen to improve their skills and efficiency in seafood exploitation, recently, departments, branches and localities in the province have been stepping up propaganda to change fishermen's production mindset from traditional and spontaneous exploitation to responsible exploitation, especially strictly implementing regulations on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Development of high-tech aquaculture
Not only focusing on exploiting aquatic products, in recent years, localities in the province have exploited the potential and advantages to develop the farming of aquatic products with high economic value, strongly shifting from traditional aquaculture to intensive and high-tech farming.
According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the aquaculture area of the whole province in 2023 will reach nearly 3,400 hectares. The annual aquaculture output will reach 7,500 - 10,000 tons. In particular, the whole province has about 107 hectares of high-tech farming, including: 50 hectares of Vietnam High-Tech Aquaculture Company Limited - Branch 1 in Quang Tri with the farming objects of white-leg shrimp and saltwater and brackish water fish; the remaining 57 hectares are invested by shrimp farming facilities in the districts of Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, Trieu Phong, Hai Lang and Dong Ha city.
Raising saltwater fish in cages at Vietnam High-Tech Seafood Company Limited - Branch 1 in Quang Tri - Photo: LA
Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Huu Vinh said that with the province's support policies and the efforts of the agricultural sector and localities, aquaculture households have increasingly actively applied high technology in aquaculture.
Along the key shrimp farming areas in Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, Trieu Phong, and Hai Lang districts, there are dozens of models with investment costs of up to billions of VND for shrimp and snail farming. Shrimp farmers also build closed houses and floating cages with roofs to stabilize the temperature, limit the spread of pathogens and other impacts that affect the growth of farmed shrimp. The average shrimp harvest yield is from 15 to 20 tons/ha.
In addition, many shrimp farming models following VietGap, multi-stage biotechnology, circulating farming... have also been applied by people, contributing to the sustainable development of shrimp farming and being environmentally friendly. Accompanying farmers, the agricultural sector and localities have focused on investing in infrastructure in concentrated farming areas, supporting training for people on aquaculture to ensure product quality standards, applying science and technology to farming... The province has also increased calling for and encouraging organizations and individuals to invest in developing aquaculture in the direction of applying high technology in the province.
According to Mr. Vinh, the province's orientation is to develop the aquaculture industry towards large-scale, modern, sustainable commodity production, associated with processing and building synchronous infrastructure. Along with support policies, the agricultural sector is closely coordinating with localities in transferring technical and technological advances to aquaculture, especially in new varieties and techniques, both to improve productivity and product quality and value, and to replace traditional farming methods to limit diseases.
Organize training and coaching on aquaculture and fishing techniques, build demonstration models suitable for each region's conditions. Propaganda and mobilize fishermen to stick to the sea and traditional fishing grounds, along with that build preferential policies for fishermen, especially modernizing fishing fleets. Invest in upgrading and building new fishing ports and storm shelters for fishing vessels, large fishing logistics service centers to basically meet the needs of fishermen for offshore fishing as well as ensure the supply of materials, fuel for sea travel, processing and consumption.
In addition, continue to organize models of exploitation and protection of aquatic resources according to the co-management model, especially in coastal fishing grounds to ensure the rights of poor fishermen and to exploit and sustainably protect coastal aquatic resources.
Thuc Quyen
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/phat-trien-thuy-san-thanh-nganh-kinh-te-mui-nhon-186585.htm
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