Business
Mass fish deaths hit fishermen and traders
  • | dtinews.vn | April 25, 2016 09:43 AM
 >>  Vung Ang Industrial Zone blamed for gigantic marine pollution

Fishermen and traders in the central region are facing huge losses as they have been unable to sell their catches due to the recent mass fish deaths in the central provinces.

 

Empty restaurant

From early April, thousands of fish along the coast from the central provinces of Ha Tinh to Thua Thien-Hue’s have died. The Centre for Environment and Disease Monitoring in Aquaculture reported that untreated waste water from Vung Ang Industrial Zone was discharged directly into the environment and had contaminated the water.

Local tourism has been badly affected as the beach is now full of rotting dead fish. Seafood restaurants are in dire state and market traders are fearing huge losses.

 

Mass fish deaths badly affected the traders

Fish prices have dropped by 80 to 90 percent. Grouper has fallen from VND200,000 to VND30,000 a kilo, with catfish prices falling from VND80,000 to VND20,000.

"Normally, the seafood stalls would be crowded but now no one dare to buy seafood," said Pham Thi Hue, a trader at Dong Hoi Market in Quang Binh Province.

Traders at other markets such as Ba Don, Hoan Lao and Nhan Trach said they were only able to sell freshwater fish. A trade named Kieu said, "I just bought a fresh batch from fishermen today but only one kilo was sold in the whole morning. At this rate, I'll incur a loss of VND10m for this batch alone."

 

No one wants to buy fish

Without consumers, fishermen are unemployed. Fishermen in Quang Binh Province said they had not worked for ten days.

Fisherman Vo Loi from Quang Tri Province said, "This situation is causing panic among consumers and fishermen. Fish living far from the shore are fine but fish living near the beach, within the radius of five to seven nautical miles, are all dead. If the authorities can't find out the cause and have measures to deal with this situation quickly, it'll take years for the fish to repopulate."

Many fishermen in Quang Tri Province are also thinking of staying home until the situation is sorted out.

Local authorities advised people to not buying and eating dead fish. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked farmers to closely monitor their fish and stop using any suspicious water sources.

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