Within 4 years, Vietnam will cut its fishing fleet nearly in half, in an effort to protect its fragile marine resources depleted by over-fishing. This is bold, especially considering Vietnam earned over $1.3 billion from seafood exports in the first half of 2006. Moreover, in an interesting and ironic move, the country plans to sink many of the 8000 fishing boats that will go out of service during the next few years, to create new coral reefs in the South China Sea.

In the past, Vietnamese dealt with declining fish stocks by adding more fishing boats to its fleet. In fact, experts claim that over the past decade, Vietnam's fishing fleet has grown from less than 30,000 to more than 90,000 boats. However, as stocks plummeted, local officials decided to cut the number of licensed vessels to 50,000, hoping that will be a sustainable number that will help improve fish stocks as well as the health of reefs.

Some people whose lives depend on fishing will receive training in other skills, such as aquaculture. Ultimately, it's essential that government receive the buy-in from locals, because policing the 2000-mile coastline will be nearly impossible. Moreover, the WCS recently concluded that reef marine protected areas established and managed by local people is often more effective at protecting fish and wildlife than reserves set up by governments. In other words, if Vietnam's villagers don't have a hand in this plan, it will almost certainly fail. Here's hoping things work out!

[Via Asia Dive Site]