BA RIA – VUNG TAU – After an hour of sailing in a basket boat to drop nets near the coast of Long Hai, fishermen pulled and caught 2 tons of paraplegia, selling more than 10 million VND.
Mr. Pham Xuan Hoang, 67 years old (right) in Phuoc Hung commune, Long Dien district, and his brother push a basket boat filled with nets of 1,500 m long, 6 m wide, with more than 1,000 m of ropes to the sea to encircle the nets when the species are caught. Fish swim in the water in Long Hai sea, October 19 afternoon.
Towing is a method of fishing by trawling an area of the sea, then pulling it ashore to catch fish. Fishermen here pull their nets from June to October every year, when the sea is calm, less windy, and dependent on the tide.
One of the towing crews steers a motorized basket boat that pulls the net carrying the net slowly out to sea. When 300 m from the shore, fishermen drop their nets into the sea to form a siege.
The 11-man towing team split into two groups to pull back and gradually move closer to each other as the nets were brought close to the shore. These people are not paid a fixed salary by the net owner but are divided according to a predetermined ratio.
“Every day towing, the net owner will enjoy 2 parts, the remaining 8 parts will be divided among those participating in the drag. This profession is unlucky, earning a few million a day, sometimes only a few tens of thousands”, Mr. Pham Xuan Hoang, The net owner said and said that the net he bought was nearly 100 million VND and it has a durability of more than 5 years.
After about an hour the net was pulled ashore. A flock of paralyzed fish jumped and swam wildly. Three people in the drag team tried to bring the two bottom edges of the net close together to prevent the fish from trying to escape.
Mr. Huyen (head) has been involved in pulling nets with Mr. Hoang for 10 years. According to him, this job requires rhythm, spreading strength at the right time, and obeying the commands of the operator on the boat. “The puller must recognize that the net is entangled in the reef to notify his teammates out there to dive in. This is very important, if the net is pulled, it will cause great damage,” he said.
The school of paralyzed fish was tucked into a net bag more than 4 m long.
The fisherman raised his hand to put the fish in the bag at the bottom of the net. “We pulled once in the morning, but only got a few anchovies. This time we harvested the most in the past week,” said Mr. Hoang, adding that this year the amount of fish is less and the time to pull more. At most he caught 7 tons.
Members of the trawl team bring fish ashore to sell to traders. Fish sold on the spot 5,000 VND per kg, with 2 tons of fish, this time the group of fishermen sold 10 million VND.
The paper critters are sold to rafts to be used as food for large fish. “This fish is only a little bigger than two adult fingers, the body is thin, so there is very little meat,” said Mr. Hung.
Mr. Pham Xuan Hoang extracts water from a lunchbox by the beach.
After a meal with sour anchovies, fried fish dipped in fish sauce, the people pulling the nets lie down to sleep, play chess or go to catch snails on the beach to wait for the water to drop the nets again.
“Every day when the water is good, the fish will drop the net to pull it in. But there are many days when I lie down, sit back and forth all the time, and then come back without any fish. The sea profession is very erratic,” said Mr. Hoang.
Follow vnexpress