Plastic pollution is quietly draining thousands of dollars from Vietnamese fishing families

A new study estimates that plastic waste costs small-scale fishers in Vietnam an average of $3,421 per vessel each year, a loss equal to 10-25% of annual income, through wasted fishing time, damaged gear, and reduced catch efficiency. Researchers interviewed 199 fishers working the Red River and Mekong River deltas, two of the areas most associated with global plastic discharge into the ocean, and found that fishers increasingly haul in nets filled with bags, netting, and aquaculture waste alongside their catch.

One fisher told researchers that hauls once profitable after six or seven trips now require 20 to 25. Damaged gear accounted for nearly a third of the financial losses, while time spent picking plastic out of catches added significant labor costs, and some crew members have been seriously injured freeing propellers tangled in debris.

Losses were roughly twice as severe in the Mekong Delta, where two heavily polluted river systems converge, compared with the Red River Delta further north. The study's authors argue fishers could become part of the solution through fishing for litter programs that pay small incentives for bringing plastic waste back to shore, a scheme researchers estimate would cost roughly $60 per vessel per year to fund.

Based on reporting by Carolyn Cowan for Mongabay. Read the original: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/fishers-bear-deep-costs-of-plastic-pollution-in-vietnam-but-could-help-turn-the-tide/