3. Research sites and methods
Approximately 30,000 people in Ca Mau derive their livelihoods
directly from fisheries; they are captains, steersmen and
crewmembers. Since 1975, after the war, Ca Mau received
immigrants from many provinces; they came mainly for three
reasons: to access the mangrove forest for shrimp aquaculture, to
collect aquatic products on estuaries or to fish in the Full
Protection Zone (FPZ)3 . They arrived usually in large families,
used low-cost fishing gear and did not have access to alternative
livelihood options. The majority of the fishers are poor and have a
low level of education: 3–4% are illiterate, and only 10% finished
secondary school [9]. The communities in which the research was
performed were selected for their diversity of fishing techniques,
gears and vessels, as well as their history of settlement and type
of livelihood strategy. The first site is Ho Gui, a resettled fishing
community in the resettlement zone in Nam Can district. It is
located 50 km southeast from Ca Mau city along the Dam Doi
River. The second site is Rach Goc, located in Ngoc Hien district,
80 km south of Ca Mau city along the Bay Hap River (Fig. 1).