February 14, 2008

Vietnam to trim fishing ships, safeguard marine resources

Vietnam announced to limit the number of fishing ships to 50,000 by 2010 from the current 86,000 to preserve marine resources, the agriculture industry said Wednesday.

The Aquatic Resource Exploitation and Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture explained that Vietnam needs to maintain an annual exploitation rate of 700,000 tonnes to 800,000 tonnes of seafood in onshore waters and 1.1 to 1.2 million tonnes in offshore waters.

The ministry discussed in order for the government to reduce the number of fishing ships, they would have to convince some smaller fishermen to divert to other sectors such as aquaculture and labor export.

In 2007, Vietnam's seafood exports which included large varieties of shrimps, prawns, catfish, octopuses and cuttlefish amounted to US$3.8 billion, up 12.9 percent over 2006.