After a few hours of casting nets near the coast of Vung Tau, fisherman Nguyen Minh Tan and three friends caught a ton of herring, selling for 10 million VND.

From about 6:30 a.m., more than 200 m of Front Beach along Quang Trung Street, Vung Tau City, boats docked after the early morning fishing trip on November 1. These are boats that cast nets a few nautical miles from the shore to catch herring and apricots.

On the shore, people gather to collect nets, remove fish, trade for a few hours, ending when the sun is high.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Tan (65 years old, blue shirt) and his friends brought the net from the boat to a canvas that was placed on the water surface to be brought ashore before removing the fish. Mr. Tan went to the sea at 4 o’clock, about two hours later, he collected the net and returned to the shore.

Mr. Tan has nearly 40 years of fishing for apricot and herring, said that the season for these fish species is from March to the last month of October every year.

Mr. Tan’s group pulled the fish ashore after falling in the net with a tarpaulin. His boat had four friends, but there was no fixed pay. After each fishing trip, the boat owner half of the money sells the fish, the other half is divided equally among everyone.

To catch fish, four fishermen grabbed the edge of the net and shook it vigorously, causing the herring or apricots to fly and fall onto the canvas.

Mr. Tan’s boatmate picked up fish scattered on the beach. Today he caught a ton of herring, the price at the beach is 10,000 VND per kg.

Herring with greenish skin, long body, small bones, live in surface water and swim in large schools. This fish is used as salad, braised, fried, dried, canned fish…

Soil-stained herring is washed by the women.

Fish are weighed by traders to buy at the beach or carried on Quang Trung road to factories.

Fishermen said that at the end of the fish season, most of them have a good income. “Every day, few people catch a few quintals, some lucky people get a ton. Earn a few tens of millions, very happy,” said fisherman Tran Van Son.

In addition to wholesale, herring and apricot fish are sold by some buyers to tourists for 15,000 VND/kg or 40,000 VND/kg.

According to fishermen, herring and apricot are abundant near the coast of Vung Tau and Long Hai. Previously there were nearly 100 fishing boats and now only 20 are left. “They quit their jobs because they are old and weak, children are not interested in this job because they go to work in the wind and wind, and their income is precarious,” said Mr. Tan.

Mrs. Hoa, 70 years old, after cycling around the beach, stopped by to buy two bags of fish for 30,000 VND to give to her friends and fry them to eat. Follow vnexpress