On April 26, reporters of Lao Dong Newspaper recorded that in the seaport area in Mai Lam village, Mai Phu commune, dozens of hectares of clams died white, many people are having to collect clam shells to sanitize the environment.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Dung (60 years old, residing in Mai Lam village, Mai Phu commune) said that her family raises more than 2 hectares of clams, the farming time has been one and a half years. When clams have entered the harvest season, they suddenly die en masse.
My clams have a death rate of 80%, estimated damage of 50 tons of commercial clams," Ms. Dung said sadly.
Ms. Dung recounted that when the harvest season started, her family had only sold about 10 tons when about a week ago, clams suddenly died simultaneously throughout the field, not only her family's clams but also dozens of other farming households died white.
With more than 2 hectares of white dead clams, not only causing great economic losses, Ms. Dung also worked hard to clean clam shells. She shared that if hiring someone to clean clam shells, it would cost 500,000 VND per person per day. Due to such costs, she had to accept working alone to clean up with the expectation that it would take several months to complete.
Regarding the cause of clam deaths, Ms. Dung said that it may be due to inadequate water environment. People want functional agencies to inspect, determine the cause of clam deaths and have policies to partially support damage to help them restore production.
According to the leader of Mai Phu Commune People's Committee, after discovering mass clam deaths, the locality has guided people to clean up, renovate the farming area and monitor environmental changes.
Mai Phu Commune People's Committee has also requested the Sub-Department of Fisheries to conduct inspections and take samples for analysis to determine the cause of clam death to have appropriate handling directions.
Mai Lam village currently has 43 clam farming households with a total area of about 80 hectares. The situation of clam deaths occurs with all farming households. According to people, it is estimated that hundreds of tons of clams died, with a selling price of 24 million VND/ton as it is now, the economic damage to them is many billions of VND.
