HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday sent an urgent note to the people’s committees of the coastal provinces warning residents not to eat the fish that died last week.

Provinces from Hà Tĩnh to Thừa Thiên-Huế were warned about the mass fish deaths. The Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị provinces saw the most deaths along their beaches in the past week.

While an inspection was conducted to determine the cause of the deaths, the agriculture ministry has strictly banned using the dead fish to process food in any form and asked relevant agencies to collect the dead fish and destroy them according to the law.

The local bodies in these provinces have also been asked to inform residents about the ban and instruct them not to sell the dead fish in the market. Fish breeders were to be told to stop taking water from the sea to their coastal breeding ponds, until the reason for the fish deaths had been identified.--VNS