Fishermen call for help against regulation on not exploiting skipjack tuna under 500 mm
After businesses stopped purchasing skipjack tuna under 50 cm in size, fishermen in Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and many coastal provinces fell into a state of confusion and serious economic losses.
Recently, more than 50 fishing boat owners from Quang Ngai province and 20 fishing boat owners from Binh Dinh province signed and sent a petition for help to authorities, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The ship owners expressed their desire to review the regulation that only skipjack tuna can be caught with a minimum length of 500 mm. This is part of Appendix V, Decree 37/2024/ND-CP, effective from May 19, 2024.
According to fishermen, based on this regulation, recently, domestic tuna purchasing, processing and exporting enterprises have announced to stop purchasing skipjack tuna under 50 cm in size during the peak skipjack tuna season, causing them many economic difficulties.
“When investing in boats, we fishermen have to mortgage our assets. Now the skipjack tuna fishing season has come, but we cannot fish because the companies have stopped buying,” the petition of 20 Binh Dinh boat owners stated.
 |
| The regulation of not exploiting skipjack tuna under 50 cm has pushed fishermen in coastal provinces into a state of confusion and anxiety. |
Based on decades of experience at sea, fishermen believe that most skipjack tuna are migratory fish that follow ocean currents and do not stay in one area of the sea. The rate of fish reaching 50 cm or more in size is only about 2% - 3% on each trip.
In particular, the fact that businesses have stopped purchasing skipjack tuna has greatly affected the income of fishermen, as each fishing boat has 14-16 members, and behind each member is a household.
Representatives of ship owners from Quang Ngai also added that fishermen from 12 coastal provinces exploiting skipjack tuna in general are very confused, "not knowing how to handle the catch, what revenue will compensate for the expenses".
Currently, Quang Ngai province has more than 355 fishing vessels registered to exploit the light purse seine fishery, most of which exploit skipjack tuna. According to local records from the beginning of 2023 to mid-2024, each fishing vessel catches about 20 - 30 tons/month and the cost of each fishing trip of a fishing vessel is about 250 - 300 million VND/month.
“This is not enough to cover the costs of operating at sea. (The regulation of not exploiting skipjack tuna under 50 cm) causes huge losses for the 12 provinces with a large number of fishing vessels currently operating skipjack tuna,” the boat owners analyzed.
“Most fishermen rely on marine income as their main source of income to stabilize their lives and develop their economy. If the minimum size of skipjack tuna affects their income and makes fishing boats unable to operate, then who knows how many bad consequences await us fishermen.”
Therefore, they simultaneously called for help and petitioned leaders at all levels to consider and remove the regulation on the minimum size of skipjack tuna from the list of Decree 37, so that fishermen can feel secure in their business and contribute to protecting the sovereignty of their homeland's sea and islands.
Comment (0)