Hot weather kills thousands of aquatic species

The recent hot weather has contributed to the death of thousands of aquatic species in prefectures, leaving serious damage to farmers.

Sa Pa

After Tet holiday, hot weather in days and lack of rainfall has caused serious drought. Water in streams and flumes all dry, causing lack of water in salmon ponds. Farmers had to rotate water,which has reduced the quality of water and killed fish.

In salmon farms in Thác Bạc owned by Trần Chung Hưng, 33,000 fries and 200kg of commercial salmon have been found dead since early April. He said the same happened to salmon ponds in Bản Khoang, Tả Giàng Phình, Tả Phìn, and San Sả Hồ communes.

In Sapa’s Research Center of Cold Water Fish, there have been 20,000 salmon fries and over 300kg of commercial salmons found dead, leaving estimated damage of nearly one billion dong. In every April, the Center sells almost 40,000 fries to more than 50 households. But this year’s situation may cause the lack of fries as two third of salmons have died.

Thừa Thiên – Huế

Dead black tiger shrimps scattered in Phú Xuân commune of Phú Vang district with the most of them being 30-40-day-old shrimps. The test results showed the symptom of white spot disease.

Hot weather has lowered oxygen levels in water, causing death to fish in Thuận An of Phú Vang district. Around 30 cages of ten households have been found with dull and dead fish. Of them, Lê Văn Thuận had more than one thousand of 5-month-old fish be dead. They actively used bubblers to make oxygen during hot weather to protect their fish.

Kiên Giang

Mekong Delta is suffering the dry season of the year with sunny weather in days, big difference in temperature between day and night, and off-season rainfalls making shrimps shocked and causing diseases.

By April, Kiên Giang has stocked shrimps in 119,461 hectares of brackish water. However, 61 strains of white spot disease and 12 of Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis have been found out, leaving total damages in 370ha; and in the first ten days of April, more 26 were discovered, which has increased very quickly compared to the previous months. Kiên Giang’s Fisheries Sub-department freely provided 55 households with 8.7 tons of Chlorine.

An Minh district has stocked 101,536 hectares of aquatic species, with 47,832ha of black tiger shrimps, 46,946ha of sea crabs, and the rest of blood cockles, clams, and mussels. In the middle of harvest season, total 17,322ha was made with yield 8,200 tons. As for the rest, hot weather damaged 1,048ha of shrimps, with 281ha being destroyed under 30%, 616ha being ruined from 30% to 70%, and 151ha more than 70%. The district authorities provided 4,3 tons of Chlorine for farmers to handle environmental problems and minimize the disease outbreak.

More and more shrimps have been found dead in An Biên district with 53ha of farmed shrimps of 26 households catching white spot disease. More than 410ha have been damaged and suffered from environmental problems.