Sustainable development of aquaculture

With the advantage of developing the marine economy, including fishing and aquaculture, Khanh Hoa province is orienting to develop the fisheries sector comprehensively, with the goal of bringing the province's seafood exports to exceed the 1 billion USD by 2045. Currently, the provincial fisheries sector is focusing on synchronously implementing measures to develop sustainable fisheries.

Advantages to develop

Khanh Hoa has advantages to develop the marine economy, of which the spearhead is the fisheries sector (exploitation and aquaculture). Khanh Hoa has long been identified as one of the major fishing centers of the country. Currently, the province's fishing fleet has more than 3,400 vessels, 643 of which  are 15m or longer specializing in offshore fishing. The aquaculture area in the province is 4,310 hectares. According to the report of the provincial People's Committee, it is estimated that by the end of 2024, the total aquatic product output of the whole province will reach 125,750 tons, an increase of 4.3% compared to 2023. Of which, the output of exploited aquatic products is estimated at 104,180 tons, an increase of 1.3% compared to the previous year; the output of aquaculture products is estimated at 22,570 tons, an increase of 21% compared to the previous year.

According to the leader of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the advantage of developing the marine economy, Resolution No. 09 of the Politburo on building and developing Khanh Hoa province to 2030, with a vision to 2045, has oriented the province to strongly develop the marine economy, in which the fisheries industry is oriented to aquaculture, exploitation, seafood processing, especially high-tech, environmentally friendly marine farming and developing fishery logistics services. The main goal of the provincial fisheries industry towards 2030, with a vision to 2045, is to develop the fisheries industry comprehensively and sustainably, bringing the province's seafood exports to exceed the 1 billion USD mark by 2045.

To do that, in addition to focusing on modernizing the fishing fleet, in recent years, the province has resolutely implemented and achieved many positive results in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The province has also focused on deploying and expanding the pilot model of developing high-tech marine aquaculture offshore with the goal of developing marine aquaculture in the direction of contributing to increasing productivity, value of the aquaculture industry and raising people's income; aiming at exporting seafood with high standards, ensuring food safety, meeting market demand; protecting the marine environment, aiming at developing a sustainable marine economy; gradually forming a marine farming area from 3 to 6 nautical miles, both ensuring the development of the marine economy and reducing pressure on coastal marine aquaculture; ensuring to minimize conflicts over development space between economic sectors in marine farming areas.

Raising cobia in HDPE cages in Cam Ranh

Towards sustainable development

According to Nguyen Trong Chanh - Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Directive No. 32/2024 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and sustainable development of the fisheries sector clearly stated that combating IUU fishing to develop the fisheries sector is an important, urgent and long-term issue.

Fishermen dock at Hon Ro port and bring their seafood ashore for sale.

To develop the fisheries industry sustainably, the accurate and scientific investigation of fisheries resources to rearrange the fishing fleet to suit each region and locality is identified as an urgent issue. At the same time, the conservation and protection of fisheries resources must be carried out; to do so, it is necessary to effectively delineate the protection of fisheries resources in conservation areas and marine ecosystem protection areas, and regularly organize activities to release fishery resources to regenerate fisheries resources.

In addition, the provincial fisheries sector will focus on converting from exploitation to aquaculture, from coastal aquaculture with traditional wooden cages to marine aquaculture applying high technology in a synchronous manner, because this is an important measure to reduce the intensity of aquatic exploitation but still meet the raw material source to serve factories and enterprises processing aquatic products for export. In seafood processing, it is necessary to cooperate and invest in technology for deep processing, increase the added value, diversify seafood products for export and domestic consumption. To develop high-tech marine aquaculture, adapt to climate change, the Provincial People's Committee has approved a plan to expand the pilot model of developing high-tech marine aquaculture in the province's sea areas, to be implemented in 3 phases, from now until 2029, with a scale of up to 240 hectares.

According to the plan, in the coming time, the province will promote investment in completing infrastructure to serve the development of the aquaculture industry; international cooperation to promote the development of the fields of seed production, feed, farming technology... to rapidly develop the aquaculture industry towards commodity production, industrial scale, offshore. The province will also cooperate and link with other countries to bring the province's offshore fishing fleet to legally exploit in neighboring countries. In addition, there must be mechanisms and policies to support the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry such as supporting fishermen to stop trawling, switch to environmentally friendly occupations, support people to switch from traditional wooden cage aquaculture to HDPE cage aquaculture applying high technology.

HAI LANG

Translated by T.T