The increasing cost of fuel, labour and materials for each sea trip, seafood prices and consumption, especially seafood with unstable economic value are the main reasons why many fishermen worry, even temporarily stopping fishing to anchor at the Tho Quang fishing wharf.

A unit is providing fuel for vessels to sail. Photo: V. HOANG

On the daily basis, at the Tho Quang fishing wharf in Son Tra District, there have been nearly 50 ships and boats sailing to catch fish. However, the number of ships and boats anchored here has been still a lot. This is the result of high gasoline and oil prices that have increased continuously since the beginning of the year, causing many vessels’ owners to worry that their revenue will not be enough to pay for each trip to sea.

As shared by fisherman Nguyen Dong from Quang Ngai province, the high fuel cost for fishing trips and the low price of seafood products affected fishermen's income. "After this trip, my friends and I will return to Quang Ngai and wait for the price of oil to drop to go out to sea to fish again," said Mr Dong.

Similarly, fisherman Tran Hung, residing in Duc Pho Town, Quang Ngai Province, said that during this fishing trip, he and his boatmates were "lucky" to break even. However, the cost of each fishing trip is too great due to the current oil price, causing loads of fishermen to suffer heavy losses. Therefore, he decided to anchor his vessel at the Tho Quang fishing wharf.

Meanwhile, fisherman Nguyen Van Tieng, residing in Nai Hien Dong Ward, Son Tra District shared all 3 fishing vessels of his family have just returned to the mainland about a week after a 20-day sailing trip. In addition to the cost of oil increasing to about VND 150 million, the trip brought not much with few types of valuable fish, resulting in the loss of about 50% of the initial investment capital for the sea trip.

According to the Deputy Director of the Management Board of Tho Quang fishing wharf Nguyen Lai, activities at the Tho Quang wholesale seafood market over the past few days have been still normal.

On average, there have been approximately 60 fishing vessels leaving and importing every day with the output of seafood up to 200 tons/day. When compared to before the price of gasoline and oil increased, the number of ships operating here has not dropped significantly since this is the season for fishermen to take advantage of the production.

Currently, about 650 ships and boats of all kinds are moored at the Tho Quang fishing wharf with some trawlers that are almost lying ashore due to the high cost of oil. Besides, Chairman of the Da Nang Fisheries Association Tran Van Linh said that because tourism activities have not been fully recovered, high-value fish are not ordered by many restaurants, resulting in low consumption and low prices.

“In fact, many offshore fishing vessels only go on enough oil-supported fishing trips according to the government's regulations and then anchoring to avoid losses. However, this also causes damage to vessels and an increase in maintenance costs. Therefore, the government should have policies to support fishermen, such as eliminating the environmental tax on gasoline and oil, special consumption tax to reduce gasoline and oil prices; changing, increasing the limit of support beyond the current regulation of 4 trips per year”, proposed Mr Tran Van Linh

Reporting by VAN HOANG- Translating by T.VY