A total of over 2.1 billion VND from Da Nang’s budget will be given to the city’s fishermen and seafood traders whose livelihoods have been considerably affected by the mysterious mass fish deaths which occurred along some of the beaches in central coastal provinces in April.

The news was officially released at a meeting on Tuesday which was attended by municipal People’s Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho and other city leaders. 

A local fishing boat

In detail, the owners of 825 under-20CV fishing vessels will receive one million VND each, whilst owners of 456 boats with capacities of between 20CV and 90CV will be given 2 million VND each.  Also, nearly 260 million VND will be spent on subsidising the rental fees of premises leased by seafood traders at the Tho Quang fishing wharf.  The remainder will go to a local seafood provider to cover the costs of its testing of seafood samples to ensure safe seafood supplies for local consumers.

Also at the meeting, there were discussions about reducing the number of under-20CV fishing vessels and coracles in the city. 

According to the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the city is targeting to ensure that there will be no more than 200 such boats by 2020, and no coracles will be allowed to operate in the city’s inshore waters. 

Assistance of between 10 and 30 million VND from the city’s budget will be given to the owners of under-20CV fishing vessels and coracles when their boats are no longer permitted to operate.  

Importance will also be attached to helping a total of over 1,000 crew members of these low-capacity boats and coracles to change their livelihoods.