Fishermen in Quang Yen town are still continuing to build bamboo rafts for aquaculture to bring to the assigned water areas for aquaculture along Ha Long Bay.
On the shore, bamboo continues to be gathered to build rafts. After each raft is completed, people hire fishing boats to pull it out to the river mouth and coastal areas to release oysters.
According to Quang Yen town, up to now, over 710 households have been approved for aquaculture water surface, including 644 households raising oysters and mussels and 66 households raising fish. For oyster and mussel farming households, 0.6 hectares of water surface/household are granted, and for fish farming households, 0.2 hectares of water surface/household are granted.
Typhoon Yagi almost completely wiped out the aquaculture area in Quang Yen town, with about 1,600 hectares of aquaculture, of which all cages and rafts for raising oysters and sea fish were broken and completely damaged, and 883 hectares of aquaculture ponds were damaged.
After the storm, the entire coastal sea surface from Quang Yen town to Ha Long city was flooded with styrofoam and bamboo trash.
Nowadays, foam buoys have been replaced by environmentally friendly HDPE plastic buoys, but the main material for making cages and rafts is still bamboo.
According to some fishermen, making rafts from bamboo is the most economical and convenient for harvesting, especially after Typhoon Yagi caused heavy damage, most fishermen were left empty-handed. According to calculations, the cost of making each raft from bamboo to raise oysters is about 6-10 million VND, depending on the type.
Most oyster farmers in Quang Yen make rafts from bamboo, while in Van Don district, many fishermen farm oysters using ropes tied to HDPE plastic buoys.
A leader of Van Don district said that during the recent storm Yagi, millions of HDPE plastic buoys were swept into piles at sea but were still usable after being removed, while other materials, such as bamboo and wood, were scattered and drifted across the sea.
According to fishermen in Quang Yen town, oysters raised in Quang Yen are estuarine oysters, which must be raised in cages and rafts to move to suit the salinity of the water, while oysters raised in Van Don are ocean oysters that can withstand high salinity so they must be raised in one place. However, the coastal waters in Quang Yen are not suitable for ocean oysters due to many factors.
According to Mr. Vu Duy Van - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Ninh province, many fishing households still use traditional materials such as bamboo to make cages and rafts, in order to save money, because using other sustainable farming materials would be very expensive. The Department will remind people to raise aquatic products but must join hands to protect the environment, and at the same time encourage people to gradually use environmentally friendly materials.
It is known that after storm Yagi, Quang Ninh province also directed and oriented to gradually switch to sustainable aquaculture, both to protect the assets of fishermen and businesses, and to protect the environment and marine landscape, especially Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay.
