{"id":2501,"date":"2021-08-18T02:53:29","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T02:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/tourism\/making-a-living-with-a-dangerous-profession-deep-sea-bottom-trawling"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:43:17","slug":"making-a-living-with-a-dangerous-profession-deep-sea-bottom-trawling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/news\/making-a-living-with-a-dangerous-profession-deep-sea-bottom-trawling","title":{"rendered":"Making a living with a dangerous profession: Deep-sea bottom trawling."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People call those men who live in tiny huts “hung” on the poles of nets stretched across the open sea “b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i” (hut keepers). In pursuit of a livelihood, those working as b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i always face numerous uncertainties, even risking their own lives.<\/em>
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“Solitary confinement” in the middle of the sea<\/strong>
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\u0110\u00e1y h\u00e0ng kh\u01a1i is the profession of setting deep-bottom nets far out at sea, at least 5 nautical miles from the mainland. The nets are attached to large poles, and atop these poles “hang” the smallest possible huts serving as shelter for the net keepers, also known as b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i. Besides guarding the nets, their job involves monitoring the tides to decide when to lower or haul in the nets, so they must stay anchored day and night out at sea. Not only are they confined “like solitary confinement” in a hut so tiny that “turning around touches the walls,” but the living environment of b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i is filled with many dangers.
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“Going to sea, don’t talk about accidents. Especially for these b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i guys, mentioning risks scares people…,” Mr. Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e0nh T\u00e0i, a fisherman from C\u00e1i \u0110\u00f4i V\u00e0m seaside town (Ph\u00fa T\u00e2n District, C\u00e0 Mau), warned me not to bring up unpleasant stories when going out to the nets so the brothers out there can stay calm. Mr. T\u00e0i said that even when there are unusual storms or unfortunate accidents, like being hit by a boat…, those who hear the news often hide it from the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i. “Because finding people for this job is really hard now. The profession is too harsh, so many people are afraid,” Mr. T\u00e0i confided.
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Lives “win some, lose some”<\/strong>
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For many years now, there have been occasional reports of b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i accidents in the Southwest sea region, mostly falling into the sea. The lucky ones get rescued, but not everyone is so fortunate, so many seafarers are terrified of the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i profession. “If something happens on a boat, we can still run to the mainland or dock at an island. But living on a hut in the middle of the sea\u2014if anything goes wrong, we’re done for,” Nguy\u1ec5n Nh\u1eadt Hi\u1ec7n (40 years old, fisherman from Kh\u00e1nh H\u1ea3i Commune, Tr\u1ea7n V\u0103n Th\u1eddi District, C\u00e0 Mau) shuddered when we asked about the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i job.
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“It’s all for the sake of a living, uncle. Wherever there’s a job that makes money, people will do it,” b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i Tr\u1ea7n Minh H\u01a1i (38 years old, from Tr\u00e0 Vinh) said quickly amid cigarette smoke, as if he had the answer ready when we asked about his profession. Without us prompting, he shook his head: “The hardship of earning a living is nothing. Falling into the sea\u2014that’s what scares me…”. Hearing H\u01a1i speak, the three other b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i burst into laughter. H\u01a1i recounted: “Just last month, some fishing boats speeding recklessly crashed straight into the net line. One guy sleeping in the hut didn’t have time to react and drifted away!”
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The story told by b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i Tr\u1ea7n Minh H\u01a1i is not rare, but the calm way he narrated it leaves listeners uneasy. It seems he’s trying to appear composed, ready for the dangerous environment that could strike at any moment.
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There are too many reasons for sudden misfortunes to befall b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i, with storms collapsing huts being a constant fear. Almost every year, some b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i die because their huts collapse. However, the massive collapse in November 2009 remains the biggest nightmare for bottom-net fishermen in Ng\u1ecdc Hi\u1ec3n District. A single thunderstorm knocked down nearly 450 net mouths belonging to people in three communes: Tam Giang, T\u00e2n \u00c2n, and R\u1ea1ch G\u1ed1c. 67 b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i fell into the sea. Fortunately, local authorities and border guards organized timely boat searches and rescued 65 people, bringing them back to land.
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“We can still prepare for whirlwinds. The scariest is being rammed by a boat at midnight while sleeping\u2014no time to react, and you’re dead in an instant,” b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i Hu\u1ef3nh Qu\u1ed1c Tu\u1ea5n confessed. Almost every year in the C\u00e0 Mau sea area, there are incidents of fishing boats or cargo ships crashing into the bottom-net lines. Tu\u1ea5n recounted that previously, a net line outside H\u00f2n Khoai Island was hit by a cargo ship, throwing the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i into the sea. Luckily, a nearby fishing boat rescued them. “Many unlucky cases just have to accept it, bro. Like my friend who fell into the sea and has been missing ever since…,” Tu\u1ea5n said.
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According to Mr. Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e0nh T\u00e0i, bottom-net owners usually monitor weather information very carefully. If bad weather is forecast, boats from the mainland will go out to bring the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i back to shore. “Waves at level 4 or 5, and we already call the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i back. However, there are also unforeseen accidents that the owners can’t predict. When an accident happens, the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i’s life is a matter of ‘win some, lose some’,” Mr. T\u00e0i said.
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Usually, net owners don’t pay salaries to b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i but share according to the net mouths. For every 6 net mouths caught, the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i gets 1 mouth. “If we hit it big, it’s 500,000 or 300,000 VND a day. If we miss, the wife and kids on land have to borrow money,” b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i Qu\u00e1ch Phi said.
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Mr. L\u00fd Ho\u00e0ng Ti\u1ebfn, Party Secretary of \u0110\u1ea5t M\u0169i Commune (Ng\u1ecdc Hi\u1ec3n District)\u2014a locality with many people working in bottom-net fishing\u2014said that recently, thanks to better communication conditions, in cases of illness, rough seas, or storms…, information can be sent from the sea to the mainland for rescue. “However, lurking accidents can’t be predicted. And the b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i profession is the one most prone to dangers,” Mr. Ti\u1ebfn added.
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According to Thanh Ni\u00ean<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People call those men who live in tiny huts “hung” on the poles of nets stretched across the open sea “b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i” (hut keepers). In pursuit of a livelihood, those working as b\u1ea1n ch\u00f2i always face numerous uncertainties, even risking their own lives. “Solitary confinement” in the middle of the sea \u0110\u00e1y h\u00e0ng kh\u01a1i is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[653],"tags":[916,914,919,915,917,918],"location":[660],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-accident","tag-ca-mau","tag-dangerous-occupation","tag-hut-keepers","tag-making-a-living","tag-seafaring","location-ca-mau"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2510,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions\/2510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanhoamientay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}