Fishing boats in Bến Tre Province. The province plans to expand offshore fishing to ensure fishing is sustainable. – VNA/VNS Photo Trần Thị Thu Hiền

BẾN TRE – The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bến Tre will expand its offshore fishing and revamp its fishing fleet to sustainably exploit marine resources under a new plan for until 2030.

Under the VNĐ250 billion (US$10.78 million) plan, the province will reduce the number of fishing boats by 468 to 3,528 in 2030.

Nguyễn Văn Buội, deputy director of the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said near-shore fishing and overexploitation of seafood stocks would be reduced.

With the number of fishing boats regulated, redundant fishermen will be helped with switching to other occupations.

Some 2,338 people will thus be taught vocational skills and provided with jobs.

Nguyễn Trúc Sơn, deputy chairman of the province’s People’s Committee, promised that to meet the targets the province would have a number of measures to manage the fishing activities and support policies to help fishermen switch to other jobs.

From now until 2030 the province will also implement advocacy programmes and projects to regulate exploitation and ensure protection of fishery resources.

It plans to establish community-based models to make fishing sustainable.

It will arrange its fishing boats into fleets for better management, categorising them into less than 12 metres long, between 12 and 15 metres and more than 15 metres.

In March last year the province started the installation of black boxes in offshore fishing boats with a length of at least 15 metres to locate their location.

Some 97.8 per cent of the 1,962 offshore fishing boats have installed it already, including all of those with a length of more than 24 metres.

The province has set up 160 offshore fishing groups comprising 2,043 boats. This has enabled them to stay longer at sea and increase their catches.

The province, which has a coastline of 65 kilometres, has advantages in aquaculture, fishing and seafood processing, and has well exploited its marine economy in recent years. – VNS