In the past, fishermen in Cat Khanh Commune mostly fished inshore which brought in low productivity. Back then when the united fishing boat teams didn’t exist yet, local fishermen were used to work invidually therefore they had to face many risks during their fishing trips. Getting this, the local government in collaboration with De Gi border post had come to the decision to form united fishing boat teams aming to gather fishermen to unite and support each other during their fishing trips, and also make it easier to administrate boats in the area.
 
Formed in 2012, the model has brought in good results in propagating and guiding members to follow the regulations on fishing in the sea, not to violate foreign seas. During fishing trips, members support and help each other when natural disasters or accidents occur, and protect the national sovereignty in the East Chinese Sea. At this point, there are 39 united fishing boat teams formed in Cat Khanh Commune with 143 boat members.
 
Mr. Dinh Thanh Tien, Chairman of the communal People’s committee, said that through these years, after the Prime Minister’s Directive No.1 was introduced, the local government in close association with De Gi border post had implemented National Border Defence Day well, encouraged people to continue to play their part in administrating and protecting sovereignty and border security in the sea, and remaining political security and social order; propagated and launched the “Citizens to take part in the national sovereignty, territory and border security protection in the new situation” campaign, and also play their relevent part in it.
 
After the introduction of Directive No. 01, fishermen have become more aware of the sovereignty and the national border security, well-informed about Vietnamese territory water; they have also become solid teams, supported each other during fishing trips and production every since. In fact, most of the accidents happened in the sea are notified to the authorities by them and it’s also them who come to the rescue. In order to develop the role of the united offshore fishing boat team, fishermen are getting attached to each other and together with the border guards to protect our sovereignty and border security in the sea.
 
To join in the team, fisherman Le Van Hai (An Quang Tay Hamlet) along with other offshore fishing boat owners in Cat Khanh Commune have actively supported each other so that everyone can feel secure to set sail on a fishing trip. Hai stated: “To join in the team, fishing boat owners and their crews were very excited. When something occurs, we always come to help. If a boat’s engine is down, the nearest boat will have the responsibility to come to help. If a crew is unfortunately gets into troubles or encounters foreign boat violating our territory water, we will contact with border guards or coast guards, so that they can give us support and solutions. We find this model has helped fishermen to work more unitedly and orderly. Thus, the productivity and the locals’ life is getting better and better. Every since we joined in the team, we have become always aware of our responsibility towards the sovereignty protection in the East Chinese Sea. Moreover, not only do we have to follow the rules of the team, but we also have to broadly spread  this to other fishing boat owners”.
 
Along with propagating and encouraging fishermen to unite for their fishing trip, Cat Khanh Commune government together with De Gi Border Post have frequently sent officers to areas in order to be in close contact with the locals and actively inform fishermen about protecting the sovereignty in the East Chinese Sea and also the regulations on border area, so that they can administrate smoothly, protect the national sovereignty and remain a political security hot spot free area.

Van Thy - The Ha – by Minh Hue