One of my favourite things about this city is the exceptional beach. Not only is it utilized by holiday makers and locals for exercise, sunning and swimming, but it is actively fished too. Here you can experience an authentic fish haul in Da Nang and have a close look at their catch.
Where to Go
Really anywhere along this 10 kilometre stretch of glorious sand there will be fishermen. However, they do tend to stay away from My Khe where the tourists mostly hang out. For a good sighting, head further along up to Tam Man Thai beach or down towards Tam T20 beach. These two boarder the popular and trendy My Khe.
Getting Ready
What you want to look out for is the initial stages of the fishermen dragging in the nets. It can take a considerable amount of time for them to slowly reel them in. Look for a line of individuals, each with a rubber belt and the rope attached at their waist.
Some fisher groups even let visitors don a belt and help out during this arduous and lengthy task. It will begin to seem like the actual net is never going to appear….until it does.
The Nets
These are placed far out at sea earlier in the morning. A single rope is brought back to shore and this is what is initially used to pull in the net. Once you begin to see the netting, things progress quite quickly. Gobs of netting are hauled in and soon appears the bulbous end portion, full of the bounty!
I am always surprised at how much netting there is for the small volume of fish that actually arrives up onto the beach.
The Seafood
Things move rather quickly now. A crowd of fisher people squat down around the haul that is teeming with thousands of little fish and other critters. Each person seemingly has a specific job to pick out a select variety.
There are shallow plastic buckets for the different species. Some are kept alive and sold alive in small plastic bags. Others are let to suffocate in their buckets with no water.
One person will be shaking out what looks like gel, but these are tiny jelly fish and do sting, so don’t touch them like I did. 😁 I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder, looked up to see a male shaking his head and finger at me, and miming a scratching motion on his arm. To warn me not to touch or I would end up itchy. 🫣 So sweet.
Sales
The leader of this particular group that I watched on this day, was an older lady. She was the one with the cell phone, who handled the money and who dealt with people trying to purchase the live fish. The first delicacies to sell were those large shrimp and next the smaller ones.
The fishermen make quick progress with the sorting. There is much to see as each variety is separated from the next, right down to shrimp that are about one inch in length. To finish, the netting is detangled and reloaded into the coconut boat for the next run out to sea.
Don’t worry if you miss one haul, you will see another being brought in a little way down the beach. These fishermen are out every day, from before sunrise to around midday. If I walk down the beach for a two-hour stroll, I am likely to pass at least half a dozen hauls being brought in during that time. This is a fascinating thing to see, don’t miss this authentic experience in Da Nang Vietnam.
