The Định An fishing port in Trà Vinh Province’s Trà Cú District. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Hòa

TRÀ VINH — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Trà Vinh is seeking funds to dredge two fishing ports and a storm shelter for fishing boats as sediment has made them too shallow for boats to dock.

The province has the Định An fishing port in Trà Cú District, the Láng Chim fishing port in Duyên Hải District and a storm shelter at the Cung Hầu estuary in Cầu Ngang District.

Trần Minh Yên, chairman of the Cầu Ngang District People’s Committee, said the storm shelter was built in 2019 but fishing boats can not enter it to avoid storms because of heavy sediment deposits.

The Định An fishing port was built in 2006 and has a capacity of receiving 350-400 fishing boats.

However, the fishing port has not been dredged in the past two years, causing difficulty for fishing boats to dock at the port to unload their seafood catch, according to Đặng Hồng Tài, deputy director of its management board.

Many fishing boats, mostly from neighbouring provinces, can no longer dock at the fishing port, he said.

Trần Văn Dũng, deputy director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said all of the province’s fishing ports and storm shelters have high sediment build-up and fishing boats can not come into them when there are low tides.

The department has petitioned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to allocate funds for dredging and upgrading the Định An fishing port and the storm shelter at the Cung Hầu estuary, he said.

Under the petition, the province will invest VNĐ188 billion (US$8 million) to upgrade the Định An fishing port's uploading capacity to 25,000 tonnes of seafood a year.

The fishing port will be upgraded and become a first-grade fishing port in 2025.

With a coastline of 65km and located between the Tiền and Hậu rivers, two tributaries of the Mekong River, Trà Vinh has 1,141 fishing boats, including 234 with a length of at least 15 metres.

Fishing boats in the province caught more than 71,000 tonnes of seafood last year.

The province aims to catch 63,000 tonnes of seafood this year. — VNS