Vietnam Fishers Lose Over $3,400 Annually Due to Plastic Pollution

Plastic bags and bottles, aquaculture feed bags, nylon netting and ropes don’t sound like the makings of a healthy fishing haul. However, nets replete with these items are a near-daily reality for the majority of fishers interviewed by researchers during a recent study in Vietnam. Plastic waste causes small-scale fishers in Vietnam to lose an average of $3,421 per vessel, per year, in lost fishing time, reduced catch efficiency and damaged gear, the study assessing the economic impacts of plastic debris on fishing livelihoods found. This represents a 10-25% reduction in the annual income of vessel owners. Fishers interviewed for the study reported that they had significantly increased their fishing efforts in recent years in response to the combined pressures of overexploited fish stocks and plastic pollution. “Before, 6-7 hauls were enough [to turn a profit],” one interviewee told the researchers. “Now it takes 20-25 hauls.” The study also highlights how fishers could play a significant role in solutions tackling the plastic pollution crisis, including through “fishing for litter” programs that pay fishers modest financial incentives to bring back plastic bycatch for disposal and processing on land. “When you see firsthand the sheer volume of [plastic waste] in Southeast Asia, and how it directly impacts people’s lives and livelihoods, it crystallizes very clearly why we need to address this,” study co-author Michel Kaiser, a professor of fisheries conservation at Heriot-Watt University in the U.K., told Mongabay in an interview. “Fundamentally, turning off the source of the plastic is key, but fishers can also be part of the solution.” Scientists estimate 130 million metric tons of plastic enters the Earth’s air, soil and waters each year — a figure scientists predict will more than double by 2040 if steps aren’t taken to curb it. A significant proportion of this waste makes it into the oceans: A 2015 study calculated between 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tonnes of land-based plastic enters the oceans annually through river deltas, wastewater outflows and direct littering. Vietnam has pledged to reduce the flow of plastics into the ocean by 75% by 2030 under its 2019 National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris Management. However, only 10-15% of the country’s plastic waste is currently recycled, according to the Global Plastic Action Partnership. To study the economic impacts of plastic pollution on Vietnam’s coastal fishing livelihoods, the research team interviewed 199 small-scale fishers using trawl and gill nets in the deltas of two major river systems that frequently top global assessments of marine plastic waste discharge: the Red River and the Mekong River. The team also conducted onboard observer audits to validate reported plastic catch rates. Many fishers talked about the depressing reality of “picking fish out of the plastic”, Kaiser said. “Trying to find fish amongst all this plastic is going to increase the amount of time you spend [processing] your catch”, he said. “We found that cost was actually quite significant.” Reduced efficiency of damaged fishing gear accounted for nearly one-third of costs, while the labor time spent separating catch from plastic accounted for 12%, and 6% were expenses from repairing fishing gear and fixing propeller entanglements. Other hidden costs also emerged. “The amount of plastic floating around in the ocean is now starting to interfere with vessel safety”, Kaiser said. In the study, many fishers reported crewmembers sustaining serious injuries or even fatalities while attempting to untangle propellers. “The real cost to these communities is pretty grim”, Kaiser said. “If you were to factor in loss of life and mutilations, the costs would be even higher.” Overall, the study found plastic waste led to fishery earning losses ranging from 10% to 25%. However, there were significant differences between the two river deltas. Lower-income communities in the Mekong Delta lost up to a two-fold greater share of their income due to plastic when compared to fishers operating further north in the Red River Delta. The disparity is likely down to a “double whammy” of factors occurring in the Mekong Delta, Kaiser said. Two of the world’s most plastic-polluted river estuaries, the Saigon-Dong Nai and the Mekong, flow into the area, while preliminary oceanographic studies suggest plastic debris flows north to south along Vietnam’s coastline, toward the Mekong Delta. The researchers urge policymakers to consider the Mekong Delta’s higher economic burden when deciding where and how to target cleanup interventions. “Coastal and marginalised communities bear disproportionate social, environmental, and health harms across all stages of the plastic lifecycle, despite contributing least to this problem and having limited influence over decision-making”, the study says. Nicole Russo Guerrato, an interdisciplinary marine scientist at James Cook University in Australia, who was not involved in the study, said the findings provide new evidence of how marine plastic pollution affects coastal communities in Vietnam, which could prompt policymakers to direct resources toward “effective and socially equitable” solutions. “Most marine litter research to date has focused on environmental impacts”, Guerrato told Mongabay in an email. The new study results show decision-makers that plastic pollution also has significant social and economic consequences that need to be addressed, she said. Guerrato said earlier studies have also not always captured the full extent of the challenges facing fishers, focusing mainly on direct costs, such as damaged gear. By considering the cost of lost fishing time in its analyses, the new study gives a fuller picture of the actual economic burden borne by small-scale fishers, she said. In future research, it would be helpful to also consider the less tangible consequences of marine debris that can’t be measured in monetary costs, such as impacts on well-being, cultural identity, livelihood security and community resilience, Guerrato added. The researchers say their findings could now feed into the design of potential solutions, such as “fishing for litter” programs that pay fishers modest financial incentives to bring back plastic bycatch for disposal and processing on land. Many fishers told the researchers they dump plastic waste back overboard once it’s been separated from their catch owing to a lack of incentives to bring it back to shore. However, most interviewees said they would be interested in participating in a buyback program if the compensation was adequate. A buyback price of $0.16 per kilogram (per 2.2 pounds) of plastic debris would be required, the fishers indicated in their responses — a figure roughly equivalent to the market price of the low-quality “trash fish” often caught as bycatch and sold as aquaculture feed. Based on their observations of the amount of waste fishers haul in each