It is the main season for catching skipjack tuna, but dozens of purse seine fishing boats of Binh Dinh fishermen are stuck on shore, because of the regulation that only fish over 50cm long can be caught, causing difficulties for fishermen.

According to Dan Tri reporters at Quy Nhon Fishing Port (Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh), dozens of fishing boats fishing for skipjack tuna (striped tuna, melon fish) lined up and anchored at the port. Meanwhile, according to local fishermen, from July to November is the peak season for skipjack tuna fishing.

Mr. To Van Duy, Tam Quan Bac Ward, Hoai Nhon Town, Binh Dinh Province, deputy captain of fishing boat BD-99045-TS, said that Vietnam's fishing resources are increasingly depleted, while the regulation only sells fish with a size of 50cm (equivalent to a weight of 2kg) or more, causing difficulties for fishermen.

"If fishing meets standards, all nets must be replaced with new ones, which requires an investment of more than a billion VND. However, the important thing now is that there are not many tuna that meet the required standards for fishing. Should we pull up the net now and dump the fish that are not 50cm long into the sea? Fishermen are in a very difficult situation," Mr. Duy worried.

After nearly 30 years of working in the fishing industry, fisherman Tran Nhi (56 years old, in Tam Quan Bac ward, Hoai Nhon town), captain of fishing boat BD-98405-TS, was surprised by the somewhat unrealistic regulation for fishermen who directly exploit aquatic products at sea.

"Tuna that are 50cm or larger are now very rare, while the cost of a fishing trip is about 300 million VND, not including the salary for the crew.

The trip lasts more than a month, if lucky, you can catch 20-30 tons, but the fish that meet the standards for sale are only 2-3 quintals. With the current price of tuna at 10,000-11,000 VND/kg, how can fishermen dare to go out to sea and stay at sea?" Mr. Nhi sighed.

Fisherman Tran Nhi said that skipjack tuna over 50cm long is very rare (Photo: Doan Cong).

Mr. Nhi hopes that the relevant agencies will soon propose to the Government to adjust the regulations accordingly.

According to the Department of Fisheries of Binh Dinh province, the whole province has 6,242 registered fishing vessels with more than 40,000 workers participating in fishing, of which the purse seine fishing industry specializes in catching tuna with about 650 fishing vessels with more than 7,500 workers.

The annual fishing output of the whole province reaches over 270,000 tons, of which the output of all kinds of tuna reaches over 55,000 tons (ocean tuna is about 12,000 tons/year).

Meanwhile, the total annual output of skipjack tuna exploited, the type with a length of 50cm or more accounts for only about 10-15%, the rest are mainly 30-40cm long.

Mr. Tran Van Phuc, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Dinh, admitted that with the regulation that skipjack tuna must be at least 50cm long to be allowed to be exploited, seafood exporting enterprises have stopped purchasing skipjack tuna with a length of less than 50cm.

Therefore, many fishing vessels operating tuna purse seine have to stay ashore for fear of losses, greatly affecting the production of seafood and the lives of fishermen. Many fishermen have petitioned the government to consider this regulation.

According to Mr. Phuc, in order to preserve and sustainably develop aquatic resources and not greatly affect the exploitation of aquatic resources, this unit has proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development review the regulation on the minimum size allowed to exploit skipjack tuna and other aquatic species living in natural waters according to the Government's regulations.

Recently, the Government issued Decree No. 37 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 26/2019, detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Fisheries Law.

Decree 37 has many contents, including new regulations on "minimum size of tuna that can be exploited", attracting the attention of many fishermen practicing gillnets and purse seines.

Accordingly, Decree 37 stipulates that skipjack tuna must be at least 500mm (50cm) in size for fishermen to be allowed to catch them.

Source: VASEP