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T
una is abundant in the central
region’s seas. After the fifteenth
day of the first Lunar month,
fishing ships in Phu Yen head
for the open sea and bring home huge
catches. However, it is later in the year,
during the fourth Lunar month, that the
true bumper hauls are netted. During
this month, ships return home each day
laden with prime tuna specimens.
Tuna fishing is big business in the
area, with about 950 ships bringing in
around 6,000 tonnes of fish per year.
According to local fishermen, tuna
fishing began accidentally. Initially, lo-
cal fishermen found that foreign ships
worked their seas illegally. They also
found the hooks used by these for-
eign ships were a different shape from
theirs and using these strange hooks,
they found they caught tuna. Phu Yen’s
fishermen later made improvements to
these hooks and today they use fishing
lines that are tens of miles long with up
to 800 hooks.
In the early 90s, some seafood
processing plants opened. Some were
locally owned and others were foreign
joint ventures. Both sourced tuna for
export, giving a boost to the prov-
Tuna fishing is big business in Phu Yen province, with an expanding fishing
fleet of ever larger vessels and increasing local and foreign investment
TUNA FISHING
The home of
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timeout