The Association Francophone d’Entraide et de Promotion des Sciences dela Vie (AFEPS) has opened training courses on diving skills and firstaid for fishermen in Ly Son island district to help them minimise therisks of marine accidents and feel more secure to stay regularly at sea.

The district of central Quang Ngai province counts 426 shipsoperating on the sea. Their traditional fishing grounds are Hoang Sa(Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos.

However, theislanders have yet been fully equipped with specialised tools as well asnecessary skills to deal with accidents at sea. Therefore, 66 have losttheir lives in accidents at sea since 2005.

Captain of thefishing boat QNg 9618 TS, Lam Thanh Noi, from An Vinh commune, said hehas followed his father to dive for seafood since he left school, butfound it difficult to deal with emergency responses and injuries due to alack of professional skills. The training courses, therefore, havehelped him feel more confident to continue heading out to sea.

The AFEPS also provided the fishermen with safe working clothing and other tools to serve their job.
Jean-Eric Blatteau, an AFEPS representative, said his association hasstudied what happened to Ly Son divers since 1998 and trained a numberof doctors to support the fishermen. Teams of divers were also set up tohelp their fellows minimise professional accidents.

Fifteennautical miles from land, the island district of Quang Ngai covers anarea of 10.32 square kilometres where 5,575 household are based, earningtheir living by seafood catching and garlic planting.-VNA