Morning in the fishing village in the center of Phu Quoc city

On the morning of February 13, I traveled from the center of Phu Quoc city to the main area of Duong Dong fishing village, just over 2km away, in Ward 9, Duong Dong Ward, Phu Quoc City, Kien Giang Province.

Before the sun rose, the fishing village slept peacefully, despite the continuous murmur of waves lapping against the rocks. Some villagers leisurely exercised and walked along the coastal paths.

A while later, the seafood traders and buyers were also present, waiting for the fishermen who were fishing near the shore to bring squid, fish, shrimp, etc. to shore. The women in the village, who were the wives of the fishermen in the fishing village, also went to the wide sandy area to welcome their husbands home, after a night of struggling to make a living at sea.

Small boats from the far side of the sea continuously cut the waves to the shore. About three to five kilometers offshore is the local seafood farming area. Grouper and bream cages are close together, forming "floating bases" on the water surface.

Despite losing his left leg, Mr. Le Van Son (63 years old) still sticks to the profession of squid fishing. His means of making a living at sea is a round basket with a diameter of nearly 2m, equipped with a shrimp tail motor to move on the sea and an oar.

On top of the basket, Mr. Son used a plank to create a flat surface to sit or lie down while squid fishing. Underneath the basket is a place to store squid fishing equipment and a battery to light the boat all night long.

"Every day, my basket leaves the dock at 6pm the night before and returns to this wharf at 6am the next morning. I stayed up all night but only caught 4kg of quite large squid, which I sold to local traders for 270,000 VND/kg. It's my uncle's job, sometimes it's profitable, sometimes it's not, you never know," said Mr. Son.

Although he is 69 years old, Mr. Phan Van Khoe is still healthy, has a strong body and is one of the most senior fishermen in Duong Dong fishing village. After spending a long night fishing for squid on a round basket floating on the sea, Mr. Khoe only caught 2.5 kg of live squid.

He smiled and said: "It's normal to lose. If there's a lot, there won't be any, but if we push the basket out to sea, the fishermen will have fresh fish and squid for their family meals. If there's a lot, we sell it, if there's not much, we keep it for ourselves, it's not a big deal."

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich, a trader who specializes in buying squid from fishermen at Duong Dong wharf fishing village, said that on average, each morning she buys more than 150kg of squid from this fishing village, and sometimes up to 200kg.

All are squid caught from the fishing boats of fishermen, very fresh and delicious, distributed by Mrs. Bich to restaurants in Phu Quoc city.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Vinh, a familiar trader in this fishing village for the past 10 years, said that every morning he comes to buy all kinds of sea fish caught by fishermen.

"On average, about 150 to 200kg/day, mostly grouper, bream, mackerel, pink fish... But today there are few because fishermen will not go to sea much on bright moon days, so after the full moon of January, the fish will run a lot. At that time, the morning in this fishing village is very bustling", said Mr. Vinh.