Born in the sea village of Phu Tho 3, Hoa Hiep Trung townlet, Dong Hoa district, after marriage, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hiep (born in 1973) resides at his wife’s home in ward 6, Tuy Hoa city and continues his career at sea. He said that in the old days, his father made his living at sea by small-engined boats; now he has his own large-machined vessel, so there’s no reason for him to leave sea. Sea is in his flesh and he regards sea as “fields” to “plow” each day.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hiep
It’s not always that the fishery exploitation always achieves high output, enough to offset the initial costs and bring about income to support the family. Particularly, in recent time, marine fishery resources have diminished, fishing disputes happen more frequently, which causes disadvantages for fishermen, even a number of fishermen suffering from loss and stop business. To minimize the risk of losses in each sea trip, in recent years, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hiep (captain of ship PY 92179TS with 280CV capacity), one of a few fishermen in Tuy Hoa city has followed the motto “polyculture” for each fishing trip, which means that for each sea trip, in addition to exploiting tuna, Mr. Hiep and 9 workers have also done the catching shark.
Mr. Hiep let known: When the tuna-fishing profession faces difficulty, the information of reduced tuna-price from land, the crew members transfer to catch sharks. Therefore, before going to the sea, besides the tuna-exploiting apparatus, we always take the shark-exploiting apparatus on board. We work on a very wide ground, from the fishing ground of Hoang Sa to Truong Sa. The shark-exploiting apparatus consists of many packages, each has many strands of nylon as large as the chopsticks’ head fastening the steel hooks as big as the brake wire of bike. A catching-apparatus has hundreds of hooks, dropped into the sea. Thanks to his flexibility in doing the business, during the sea season of 2012 and 2013, Mr. Hiep’s family earned an income of over VND 2 billion, an income higher than many other fishermen in Tuy Hoa city at the time.
“We are not afraid of winds and waves, or collision with foreign vessels because the sea is ours, we do not fear anyone. However, traders’ squeezing price makes us unpleasant for our effort”, Mr. Hiep expressed. His word is not unfounded, since before landing, to get money to buy fuel, food for the fishing trips, fishermen often borrow money from the traders buying fish, then selling fish to them to pay debt. Fish caught by fishermen, while fish prices are decided by magnates, so fishermen are marginalized. With any queries, it’s difficult for him to borrow money again for the next fishing trip. At that time, the only way was to ask ship lying coast, crew members had to find other jobs to support their families.
Mr. Phan Thuan, Chairman of Fishery Union in ward 6 (Tuy Hoa city) commented: Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hiep always tries his best to learn experience from former fishermen, he’s very flexible in business to provide income for his family. Not only being the bread-earner for his family’s, Mr. Hiep is also the Head of the Unity boat-team, with 16 ships, more than 150 fishermen participating in activities, helping each other with sea business. With his efforts, Mr. Hiep was awarded the Merit Certificate from the PPC, Vietnam Farmers’ Association and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Source: Phu Yen NewspaperTranslated by TRINH THUY
Đăng ký: VietNam News