Only on days when the sea is calm and we hear about good fishing grounds will we take the boat out to fish, but we only go back and forth the same day, not for long. We don’t catch much if we go far, and when we come back we can’t make up for the loss” – Male fisherman, 35 years old.
Total (tons) | Divide | ||||||
Fish | Shrimp | Squid | Snail | Crab | Other | ||
Total | 6,091 | 4,703 | 467 | 343 | 33 | 114 | 430 |
In there: | |||||||
- Individual (1) | 5,926 | 4,541 | 467 | 340 | 33 | 114 | 430 |
- Business | 165 | 162 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
(2) | |||||||
Nghi Tan Ward | 920 | 878 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
(1) | 920 | 878 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Nghi Thuy Ward | 3,170 | 2,542 | 141 | 46 | 6 | 19 | 415 |
(1) | 3.005 | 2,380 | 141 | 43 | 6 | 19 | 415 |
(2) | 165 | 162 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
P. Thu Thuy | 241 | 92 | 13 | 45 | 20 | 72 | 0 |
(1) | 241 | 92 | 13 | 45 | 20 | 72 | 0 |
(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Nghi Hoa Ward | 55 | 46 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
(1) | 55 | 46 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Nghi Hai Ward | 1,705 | 1,144 | 309 | 220 | 5 | 12 | 14 |
(1) | 1,705 | 1,144 | 309 | 220 | 5 | 12 | 14 |
(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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Table 5: Statistics on seafood catch of Cua Lo town in 2005
( Source: Statistics Office of Cua Lo Town People's Committee )
In general, some effective fishing techniques in recent times are light net fishing, squid fishing, offshore night fishing, and trawling for fish, etc., but they mainly require multiple techniques on one boat for seasonal fishing. The use of mines and electric shock for fishing is still being carried out secretly, affecting the environment and depleting aquatic resources.
Annual seafood exploitation output does not increase much and shows signs of slowing down.
Table 6: Seafood production from 2001 to 2006 in Cua
Oven
Year
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
5.120 | 5.515 | 6.149 | 6.150 | 6,300 | 6,400 | |
Including: Fish of all kinds | 4.010 | 4,360 | 4,716 | 4,680 | 4,820 | 4,850 |
Shrimp of all kinds | 385 | 477 | 457 | 450 | 460 | 500 |
Ink of all kinds | 289 | 315 | 363 | 400 | 400 | 400 |
Types of seafood other products | 436 | 363 | 576 | 600 | 500 | 600 |
Mining output (tons)
( Source: Statistics Office of Cua Lo Town People's Committee )
4. Forms of seafood exploitation organization
4.1. Division of labor by gender
The place where we can easily and clearly observe the division of labor by gender in the fishing community here is the fishing wharf when the boats arrive. Follow the women who wake up early in the morning and go with them to Nghi Thuy fishing wharf to see the hustle and bustle when the boats return to the wharf, the bargaining when buying and selling, and especially to see the clear manifestations of the division of labor by gender. Early in the morning, there were already a few women standing and sitting waiting for the boats to return. From 5:30 am to around 6 am, more women appeared, some walking with shoulder poles, some riding bicycles, some riding motorbikes, and some women driving cars (these were cars of the frozen processing facilities and factories in Nghi Thuy ward, Nghi Tan). In a small community and with activities taking place regularly at the wharf, most of them knew each other. After arriving at the dock, while waiting for the boat to return, these women stand and sit in groups, some are neighbors, some are in the same processing industry, some are traders, etc. They sit and chat with each other about the amount of fish they caught yesterday, about market prices, about family matters, etc. When they see the boat returning from afar, they stand up one by one, stand close to the steps up and down the dock to be ready.
With the characteristics of the ecological environment, from ancient times to the present, the division of labor in the fishing community has its own unique features, notably the division of labor by gender. The division of labor by gender can be considered a traditional form of division of labor in the fishing community in general, characterized by: men (usually husbands) taking on the task of catching seafood - a heavy and dangerous job, requiring a lot of labor; while women (usually wives) stay at home to take care of the children, do housework, preserve, process and trade seafood. The coastline can be used as a boundary to visualize the division of labor by gender in the fishing community.
buy shrimp, fish
The boats lined up to dock. On the boats were men, their faces tired after a day of work. As soon as the boat reached the dock, a young man lowered the bamboo boat into the water, took a rope and rowed in. When they reached the shore, they anchored the rope to the iron pin that had been fixed. Then, the young man clung to the rope to return to the big boat. At this time, the men on the boat took turns carrying baskets of fish and handed them to the young man on the bamboo boat. After about 4-5 baskets full of fish and shrimp, this young man followed the rope back to shore, and so on until all the fish on the boat were transferred to shore.
All the buying and selling activities when the fish is caught take place right at the wharf. The price negotiations are lively, along with the voices of the local people creating a mixed sound. The women stand around the people in charge of selling fish to bargain the price, some buy to process, some buy to sell fresh, some buy to freeze, and some simply go to the market early just to buy food for their families (in the summer, some tourists can also come to the fishing wharf to see and buy fresh seafood). Meanwhile, on the boat, all the men together rearrange the fishing gear, clean the boat. Until the buying and selling on the shore is almost finished, the buyers and sellers have almost dispersed, the men on the boat get off the boat one by one, return home to rest after a hard day's work. - Observation by the author of the thesis.
Depending on the time of day, the schedule of each person participating in the job is different. For those who participate in fishing during the day, a working day is usually counted from 1 or 2 am to 3 or 4 pm. If fishing at night, a working day is counted from 2 or 3 pm today to 4 or 5 am the next day. That is the time spent at sea for those who fish in the open sea. As for the boats that go fishing at sea, some boats go for a whole week before returning. After returning from the sea, the men rest for the rest of the day. In addition, they can also help their wives in drying and processing the seafood they catch (cutting the fish, spreading the fish out to the edge, carrying it to the yard or hanging it on the roof to dry, etc.) and especially repairing fishing gear to prepare for the next trips.
Because the methods of seafood exploitation depend a lot on the weather, the schedule of male fishermen also depends on the weather, when the sea is calm they go fishing, when the sea is rough they stay at home. Total leisure time of fishermen in
Going to the beach depends on the weather. In the summer, we go regularly, and sometimes on rough days, we stay home. But from July and August onwards, there are continuous storms, sometimes lasting more than a week. During those days, we just stay home, do some odd jobs, and go to meetings - Male fisherman, 35 years old.
The average year is about two months. During that time, they mainly stay at home, can participate in housework, repair fishing gear, attend village meetings, family affairs, visit relatives, etc. As for women, there are also stormy days when they cannot carry out trading activities, but they still often have to do housework and process seafood.
4.2. Organizing fishing by boat
The characteristics of the working environment at sea are many risks, human stature is too small compared to the vast and harsh nature, the fishing objects are always moving and difficult to grasp, therefore, the connection between people working on the same fishing boat to create the best working efficiency is extremely important. Also due to the characteristics of such a special working environment, from a young age, men have been trained to get used to the water environment, and it takes a long time for them to become a proficient sailor with fishing skills. Since ancient times, the division of labor on fishing boats has been very specific, based on seafaring experience and age, including 6 different ranks.
The lowest level is the Parrot , boys aged 11-12 begin to learn the sea trade, their duties are to clean the boat, draw water, cook rice, and act as "errand boys" on the boat. Each boat has 1 person.
After a period of time at sea, when they have become familiar with the waves, the fishing gear and how to use it, these people are promoted to junior rank (usually at the age of 16 - 17), they are responsible for carrying the net, casting the net, steering the boat,... In addition, they are also responsible for informing each member participating in the boat of the departure time of the trip and transferring the fishing gear onto the boat.
When they have more experience at sea, they are promoted to another level, called trai . The main tasks of these people are to catch nets, hold nets, lower nets, pull nets,...
And when they are skilled, they can be promoted to friends , their task is to fight.
boat, row, and master the skills of netting and fishing.
The fisherman is the leader, the commander, has good fishing experience, many years, knows how to direct the boat, when to enter and exit the dock, when to cast the net upstream, when to cast the net downstream, when to lower the boat... Usually they are the ones who decide where to go fishing based on experience and judgment skills. The fisherman is sometimes the boat owner, but can also be hired by the boat owner to go fishing.
The old boatman is an old man who used to be a craftsman, but is no longer healthy and alert enough to be the captain of the entire boat team. He sits at the bow of the boat, directing the steering and pulling the rudder, based on his experience of observing changes in the weather (water, wind, clouds, etc.).
The fisherman was the most important person, like a General, the commander-in-chief of an army in a battle. He assigned who to do what, where to stand, when the water moved, when to throw the net, when to pull it back. When there were no fish finders and the crew had not yet learned much fishing techniques, relying mainly on experience, the fisherman's decisions were even more important. When we were on the fishing boat, we all listened to his work arrangements.
Male fisherman, 70 years old.
Each member of the boat has a different responsibility, which is maximized when fishing. The smooth coordination between members when casting and pulling the net is very important, in which the role of the worker stands out .
The position of the members on the boat also partly determines their position in society in the eyes of the whole community. The longer people have been at sea, the more experience they have in weather forecasting and the ability to observe and recognize fish schools, the more respected and admired they are by the whole community.
In the past, we had groups of people who went to sea - those were people who were "compatible" and often played together. When working for big boats, we often invited the whole group to go, only then could we easily advise and share work responsibilities. Our personalities were not compatible, making it difficult to work together. But since we started to follow the family economy, many households have their own boats, so almost all fathers and sons in the family go together, or invite their relatives to go together, 5 or 6 people share.
Working together on a small boat, facing the vast ocean, the relationship between those people is very special. The harmony of personalities between the members on the boat is also an important factor.
Work to do. Now, even going offshore fishing is difficult because it is not easy to gather workers, especially since each person has a different personality. If there are arguments and conflicts on the boat, it is very dangerous. - Male fisherman, 52 years old.
Unable to control natural factors and weather, people have to stick together to work in an environment with many risky factors.
During the cooperative period, the relationship between the crew members was a cooperative relationship between members of the cooperative's teams, working under the assignment of the team leader. The position of the members on the boat also depended on their experience at sea and their proficiency in using the net.
However, in the early 80s, when the cooperative was dissolved and switched to a household economy, almost every family had a small boat for coastal fishing. On the offshore fishing boats, depending on each profession, the number of workers was different (section II.2), but in general, there were at least 3 people, and at most 7 people. Basically, each boat had a captain who was also the person in charge of fishing techniques, 1 person in charge of machinery, and the rest of the crew were responsible for preparing tools, dropping and pulling the net. But when it came time to fish, all crew members worked together to have the most successful catch.
The relationships between crew members are mostly based on family and clan relationships. On fishing boats, there are mainly fathers, sons, brothers and some other relatives. Therefore, solidarity on each boat is very high, and the division of the day's catch is also divided equally among the members, after deducting fuel costs and fishing gear maintenance.
4.3. Group fishing organization
In early 2008, fishermen here had the initiative to establish "seafood exploitation boat teams" to cope with the situation of price increases and limit risks at sea. Cua Lo has 8/32 fishing associations with boat teams. Of which, Nghi Hai ward has established 14 teams, Nghi Thuy 3 teams, Nghi Tan 3 teams, each team has at least 3 boats, the most is not more than 5 boats. When setting off, only one boat needs to start the engine to pull two to three boats, when reaching the fishing ground, the boats spread out to exploit. When fishing 20-30 nautical miles offshore, the boats can contact each other so that the boats with low output can collect products and send the full boat back to shore to sell, the rest continue to stay at sea to exploit.
With this method, the boats can save time and fuel costs while still maintaining fishing grounds. On the other hand, the boats in the group no longer have to worry about mechanical breakdowns at sea because there will always be a member boat in the group to support. This is the factor that makes finding fishing grounds and fish routes easier. Not only connecting and cooperating at sea, the boat groups also set up funds or contribute capital to help each other invest in machinery, nets, and equipment for seafood fishing.
Fishermen said that before (when the price of gasoline had not increased), the cost of a round trip in a day was only 400,000-500,000 VND, but now it has increased to 800,000-1 million VND, causing the cost of labor to also increase, after deducting expenses, boat owners still have to compensate for losses. Now, they have saved costs for each trip by increasing the time they stay at the fishing grounds to 2-3 days. Thanks to that, the output from the beginning of the year until now is 5,000 tons, reaching 70% of the plan and increasing by 1,500 tons compared to the same period; the average income per capita is from 1 million to 3 million VND.
The Chairman of the Town Farmers' Association said: Cua Lo has 4/7 wards and communes engaged in fishing. In the coming time, Cua Lo will issue regulations on the operation of the seafood fishing boat team so that the activities of this organization will be organized and increasingly effective.
The owners of the vessels join together in groups, clans, etc. to fish in the same area, on boats equipped with walkie-talkies (in the future they will be equipped with ICOMs), proactively contacting and helping each other to fish, sell products and support each other in case of problems.
5. Product types and product distribution network
Due to the characteristics of the ecological environment, and more specifically the biological characteristics of the caught products: they are fresh living creatures that quickly spoil if not processed, preserved or distributed in time. Therefore, immediately after being caught, seafood needs to be distributed to channels for processing or preservation. However, fishermen cannot immediately undertake the work of trading or processing. Because they cannot do that because their health is not guaranteed, they have just had a period of hard work at sea. In addition, fishermen cannot successfully sell seafood themselves, their work follows a separate schedule, depending on the weather and the seafood species, so the time they bring
The arrival of fish does not coincide with the opening or closing of the market. In particular, success in trading requires a wide range of market knowledge and the ability to predict price fluctuations – something that fishermen are not well versed in. Therefore, there is a very close relationship between fishermen and those who regularly buy seafood right at the dock.
Every time the boat is about to reach the dock, someone on the boat will immediately inform me about the amount of fish and shrimp that was caught today. Because I have told them in advance. My family processes a lot of fish sauce, so I have to tell 3 or 4 different boats in advance, so I know to go out and buy quickly. There are more and more frozen processing facilities, if I am not quick, they will buy it all, and if I want to have raw materials for processing, I have to buy them again from those facilities, so the purchase price will increase compared to buying directly from the dock, which is more expensive. - Female fisherman specializing in processing fish sauce, 45 years old.
The subjects who buy seafood right at the wharf are very diverse. If we consider the purpose of using seafood, we can divide them into: those who buy to process, those who buy to resell, those who buy to freeze, hotel and restaurant staff who buy to resell to tourists, and tourists. The latter two groups only appear in the summer, but the first three groups are still the main subjects all year round. Of which, those who buy to process and freeze often buy in larger quantities. Therefore, they have established regular contact with those who go fishing. Each household has a certain number of contacts. When the fishing boat is about to reach the wharf, the people on the boat call to inform the people on shore, prepare tools and means to promptly go to the wharf to get fish and shrimp. Here, there is no system of intermediaries between the fishermen and the buyers above, because the catch here is not too large, the scale of the fishing port is small, so most of the trading takes place directly between the people on the boat and the seafood processors and traders.
Normally, there are two times when boats arrive each day, boats return from around 5 to around 9 am, which are trips from the previous afternoon (from around 2 to 3 pm the previous day), and at 3 to 4 pm (boats that return from fishing from around 1 to 2 am).
As soon as the fish are brought ashore, the negotiation of purchase and sale is concentrated.