Sea farming in the face of climate change challenges

Sea farming is full of risks

Climate change, storms, strong winds, and big waves are becoming more and more complicated and unpredictable, so fishermen using traditional wooden cages often face risks and are susceptible to economic losses . Since then, it has forced fishermen to change farming methods to both adapt to climate change and ensure economic benefits, as well as help aquaculture develop long-term and sustainably.

Khanh Hoa is located in the South Central Coast region with many potentials and advantages for marine aquaculture development, with 385 km of coastline and more than 200 large and small islands, 3 bays and 2 lagoons that are relatively airtight.

Along with that, there are Research Centers, training institutions, and research institutions on pediculture in the area such as: Fisheries Research Institute III, Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography, Nha Trang University. , has promoted the marine culture movement of this province to develop among the leading groups in the country. 

According to Khanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has 5 main tidal farming areas including Van Ninh, Cam Lam, Ninh Hoa Town, Nha Trang City and Cam Ranh City. In which, lobster and marine fish (cobia, pompano, barramundi, grouper) are the key marine species of this province, raised in four localities: Van Ninh, Ninh Hoa, Nha Trang and Cam Ranh. .

The total number of lobster cages in the province is about 64,500 cages, yielding about 1,300 tons. There are nearly 10,000 cages for marine fish farming, with a total output of about 8,000 tons. In addition, some aquaculture species such as sea crabs, Pacific oysters and seaweed are contributing to effective coastal people.

However, the overall development of marine farming in this province is still not commensurate with its potential and strengths, because there are many difficulties and challenges.

According to Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, cage farming areas in the province are mainly near the shore and along the island in lagoons and bays. Marine fishers in the province mainly follow the traditional process, on a small scale. Most cages are made from traditional wood materials, which cannot withstand strong winds.

Therefore, it can be said that fisherman's cage farming is still backward and has not yet adapted to climate change. Most fishermen use fresh food, the density of farming in the farming areas is not guaranteed, so the risks to the environment, natural disasters, and diseases are very high.

Too expensive lessons from Hurricane Damrey and hurricane No. 9

The proof of the risk of natural disasters is when the storm No. 12 in 2017 (Hurricane Damrey) with wind of level 12, gusts of level 15 and heavy rain landed in Khanh Hoa, smashing the traditional farming cages of Vietnamese farmers. farmers.

The consequences of this storm caused very heavy damage with more than 16,500 billion VND, of which aquaculture lost over 11,000 billion VND.

The farming area on Van Phong Bay, where the center of the storm passed, was the place that suffered the most damage. Because in this farming area, in recent years, marine aquaculture has mainly been developed on a small scale at the household level, in coastal areas.

Breeding cages are made from primitive materials such as bamboo, wood, iron and steel, with small size (volume 96 - 125 m3/cage). These types of cages can only be raised in areas with slow flow, few waves and relatively short use time, so the investment efficiency is not high, as well as the poor resilience when storms occur.

Mr. Tran Van Thanh, a farmer in Van Gia town said, it can be said that Typhoon Damrey is an unforgettable obsession of aquaculture farmers in Van Ninh district. Therefore, learning from this storm, in the rainy season, most people move their cages to a safe place.

At the same time, farmers also obey to leave the cage to ensure life safety. However, according to farmers, even though they moved the cages to a safe place, every time they heard the news of the storm, they trembled and worried about the cages for raising shrimp and fish.

In fact, that worry of farmers is not superfluous because again from the impact of the storm No. 9, combined with the cold air that occurred at the end of 2021, it caused a big wave to destroy the wooden cage on the island. Binh Hung, Cam Binh Commune, City. Cam Ranh (Khanh Hoa).

At the scene, all the farmers' cages were pushed by the waves and shrunk into a pile of firewood, many trees used to make the raft frame were broken in half lying scattered, and plastic crates used to make floating rafts were scattered. on the sea.

People in Binh Hung Island run around looking for their raft and their eyes are red because there is no intact raft to recognize. Witnessing the scene of the rafts being torn, fish and shrimp following the foam, the farmers suddenly lost their hands and cried all their tears, we felt sorry and heartbroken for the farmers.

Standing on the farm cage that is not intact, the voice of Ms. Dao Thi Ngoc Thao lamented: After many years of accumulating capital to build shrimp farming, the family has lost everything. The family also doesn't know what to do to restore production and repay the bank debt due to more investment in shrimp farming.

Unexpectedly, at the end of the year, there was an unusual wave of waves that drove all 30 cages, of which 20 lobster cages arrived at the time of sale, damaged, clean, torn cages, fish and shrimps. Following the bubble to the sea, the damage was estimated at nearly 2 billion VND.

Not only Thao's family suffered billions of dollars in damage, but many other farmers in the village also fell into the same situation and became empty-handed. Like Mr. Vo Du's family, all 20 cages of blue lobster have been lost for sale (average of about 3 fish/kg).

Anh Enough coal, currently each cage is worth 80 million/cage. In the next few days, the family will sell to pay off bank loans, buy bait for shrimp to eat, as well as buy seed to reinvest in production. But who would have thought that at the end of the year, there would be a storm causing big waves, causing the family to lose all the assets they had accumulated for a long time.

Meanwhile, he is in debt hundreds of millions of dong from the bank, not knowing how to repay the upcoming debt. Therefore, Mr. Dui and many people here want the government to pay attention to support to help them soon restore production and stabilize their lives.

According to people in Binh Hung island village, this farming area has also been affected by storms and tropical depressions for a long time, but it has not caused great damage like this time. Although this storm did not make landfall, it had a direct impact, but it caused unexpected big waves with a height of 6-8m, even with a wave of 10m high, the water flowed rapidly, driving the rafts together.

Since then, one raft rafted another, one cage rafted another, so now there are no intact rafts left in Binh Hung, fish and shrimp run out of cages. Therefore, facing the challenge of climate change, natural disasters and epidemics, cage aquaculture farmers need to change their production methods to ensure the integrity of shrimp and fish stocked.

Mr. Tran Van Vinh, Head of Binh Hung village, Cam Binh commune said that the whole village has about 120 aquaculture rafts, mainly blue lobsters and fish of all kinds. To cope with the storm No. 9, although the villagers reinforced the rafts firmly and safely landed on the shore, so there was no loss of life, the big waves damaged all of the people's cages, causing damage. heavy.

According to Cam Binh Commune People's Committee, the damage caused by storm No. 9 in Binh Hung village made 2,472 cages, of which 573 cages for raising cotton lobsters and 1,899 cages for raising blue lobsters were damaged. Besides, 82 rafts were damaged with levels ranging from 20% to 100%; 2 boats and 1 canoe sunk, the total damage caused by this storm is estimated at 384 billion VND.