Flip through the pages of a Vietnamese cookbook and you may notice a recurring ingredient: nước mắm.
This anchovy-based fish sauce is a staple of Vietnamese cuisine, providing the savory flavor that is the throughline of dozens of traditional dishes, from pho to banh mi and goi cuon (Vietnamese spring rolls).
For centuries, fisheries have provided the most essential raw material for this delicacy, fermented anchovies. Today, the anchovy fishery employs an estimated 800,000 people in Vietnam and has made the country one of the top anchovy exporters in the world. But with rising demand also comes industrialization.
Increasingly, smaller, artisanal-scale vessels are losing access to more productive offshore waters where anchovy schools are best found, as the Vietnamese government levies quota regulations that permit only larger fishing vessels to access these fishing grounds. What was once a predominantly family owned and deeply cultural practice is now being slowly overtaken by highly mechanized commercial outfits. To keep up, local anchovy fishers face the difficult question of whether to invest in larger vessels—a resource few can afford amid rising fuel costs.
In 2024, while flying his drone over the water of the An Hai commune, along the coastline of Hon Yen, Phu Yen province, Central Vietnam, professional ocean photographer Thien Nguyen Ngoc captured these small-scaled anchovy fishers still hard at work. The following images capture these artisans using a common purse seine method to catch a local anchovy school—fish so small they’re imperceptible at this altitude.
Nguyen is intimately aware of how important it is that these artisanal anchovy traditions continue. Growing up, his paternal family fermented anchovies, many of which were caught during his grandfather’s fishing trips. With this series, Nguyen showcases these fishing families as stewards of a practice that is a cultural cornerstone in Vietnam. In 2024, the images earned him third overall place in Oceanographic magazine’s preeminent Ocean Photographer of the Year contest.
elebrated in local-scale fisheries. Timed with bands of sunlight breaking through the horizon, the images present lime green nets in stark relief against a deep blue-green ocean. The compositions present the fishnet in a form as delicate and mesmerizing as jellyfish. With each moment, Nguyen tries to memorialize a practice that is perhaps as proud as New England’s lobster dynasty.
“These images evoke many memories of my childhood and my family,” said Nguyen. “[They’re] not just a visual moment but a heartfelt tribute to our local community's heritage.”
Check out more of Thien’s work by going to thiennguyenimages.com
