Unusual fish deaths on the river
Looking at several tons of belly-raised fish scattered in cages, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoan (born in 1985, residing in Tan Loc village, Cua Viet commune) could not hide his helplessness. His family has 5 cages raising various types of snakehead fish, giant catfish, brown catfish, pink catfish, and giant catfish on the Hieu River.
On July 4th, he discovered a streak of water from upstream flowing down with a dark brown color, immediately after that, the fish refused to eat and then faintly floated to the surface of the water. The bop fish, dia fish, brown fish, and pink catfish died first with a total weight of about 3 tons. But not finished yet, on the evening of July 10th, when he went to visit the cages about 300 meters from the riverbank, he was shocked to see another 4 tons of snakehead fish simultaneously rising up, bending their backs and dying. Mr. Hoan immediately mobilized relatives to sell off the remaining fish. Normally, the price of snakehead fish fluctuates from 180,000 - 200,000 VND/kg, but recently he sold off fresh fish for only 100,000 VND/kg, and dead fish were bitterly sold for 10,000 VND/kg.
I lost 7 tons of fish, calculating the cost of seeds and feed was more than 700 million VND, selling at a loss only brought in about 200 million VND, surely losing more than 500 million VND" - Mr. Hoan said sadly. Attached to the cage fish farming profession for 11 years, except for unexpected floods, Mr. Hoan has never witnessed the scene of unusual and mass fish deaths like this time. He suspects that the cloudy water streak that flooded in from July 4th is the main cause.
The entire Cua Viet commune has 39 fish cages with more than 60 thousand fry. Only from July 5th to July 10th, 14 fish cages were completely dead, with total damage exceeding 22 tons. Not only in Cua Viet, the phenomenon of unusual fish deaths also occurred in Dong Ha ward and Nam Cua Viet commune, causing damage to cage fish, pond fish and natural fish on the river.
Fearing water source pollution, consumers dare not eat fish
Faced with chain fish deaths and color-changing water streaks stretching from the Hieu River to the Thach Han River, people are extremely worried about widespread water pollution. This situation not only directly threatens the livelihoods of aquaculture households but also raises panic among consumers.
Ms. Le Thi Thao (resident in Nam Dong Ha ward, Quang Tri province) shared that she had previously bought some red tilapia and tilapia, cleaned them and put them in the refrigerator to eat gradually. However, when she heard the news of abnormal fish deaths on the river, she was worried and did not dare to process them and hoped that functional agencies would soon announce the cause so that people could feel secure.
To prevent the risk of spreading pollution, localities require people to temporarily stop pumping water from the Hieu and Thach Han rivers into aquaculture ponds and lakes. The Department of Agriculture and Environment of Quang Tri province has established an inter-sectoral inspection team to inspect and take surface water samples in the Cua Viet river mouth area, the downstream area of Mai Xa bridge and continue to survey to take 8 more water samples for quality analysis. In addition, 4 specimens of diseased fish were also collected and sent for testing of indicators.
Deputy Director of Quang Tri Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Huu Vinh said that there is currently no basis to determine or rule out any cause, the Department is directing units to focus maximum resources on analyzing samples to soon have an official conclusion to report to the Provincial People's Committee and publicize to the people. In particular, the Environmental Management Department is assigned to take the lead in reviewing and closely monitoring all sources of waste discharged into the Hieu River to promptly detect signs of abnormal discharge.
