Over the past years, the State has poured more investment into repairing and upgrading the river and sea embankment systems, helping mitigate the consequences of natural disasters.

Every year, a tropical country like Vietnam braces for natural disasters. When the stormy season comes, it develops in a complicated manner. We all know that natural disasters are inevitable phenomena, but better forecast and proper prevention and control measures will help mitigate the human and property losses caused by natural disasters. Overcoming the consequences of typhoon Chanchu, which killed hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen offshore recently, cannot be done overnight, and from now on we should learn lessons from the typhoon.

According to the fisheries sector, Vietnamese fishing practices have developed for a long time and all fishermen conduct their activities offshore with traditional experiences, accumulating over many generations. Each lesson of experience is a high price and sometimes costs the lives of those involved. For the fishing industry, each lesson costs fishermen’s lives.

The sea is very unpredictable and experienced fishermen cannot predict unexpected situations. Nobody thought that during the calm sea days, a tropical low pressure system was building and suddenly struck central Thanh Hoa province, killing hundreds of local fishermen in Hau Loc district. Nobody thought that the south-eastern region – which is rarely hit by typhoons and tropical low pressures – could unexpectedly be stricken by a powerful typhoon, killing thousands of fishermen. And nobody thought that Chanchu – the first typhoon in the East Sea this year – could suddenly change its directions from west to north and then north-east. Consequently, a natural disaster occurred.

The bottom line is that there is no room for complacency in the fishing industry. Currently, many fishing trawlers are being upgraded with modern positioning and high-range communication equipment, which allows fishermen to have regular contact with the mainland. However, most of our experienced captains and crew chiefs have not mastered modern equipment. Although developments regarding typhoon Chanchu were timely broadcast by media agencies, they were not correctly handled by fishermen. Lessons should be drawn from this typhoon.