THỪA THIÊN – HUẾ — Cage fishing farmers on the Bồ River are distraught over an unexplained mass fish death that has caused great economic losses.

According to local residents, on Monday morning, silver carp and carp – each weighing 5-9kg and raised for 9-10 months – all died, white bellies floating up.

Nguyễn Thị Ny, a farmer in Hương Xuân Ward, Hương Trà Town, said during her five years of cage fish farming, this has been the first time her family suffered losses of this scale, two cages with 300 fish all died out. Her entire family’s livelihood has been “ruined.”

“This morning, I have asked relatives to bring all the dead fish to the market and try to sell as fast as possible, for a meagre VNĐ3,000 – 5,000 (US$0.13 – 0.22)  a kilogramme, while normally, a kilogramme could easily fetch VNĐ65,000 – 90,000 (U$2.9 – 3.9),” Ny said.

Shouldering the same worry, Dương Đức Huân, from the same ward, said his family also owns two cages. He lost 100 kilogrammes of fish, and was at a loss as to why this phenomenon occurred on the river.

Dozens of cage fish breeders on either sides of the Bồ River in Hương Xuân Ward and other villages of Phước Yên, La Vân Hạ in Quảng Thọ Commune, Quảng Điền District, are also “sitting on hot coal.”

Ngô Quang Thảo, Chairman of Hương Xuân Ward People’s Committee, said the ward is still monitoring the situation, and by latest data, of 350 fish cages totalling 5 tonnes have died.

“According to some local residents, the mass fish death is due to lack of oxygen in the waters. We know that in the last two days, the river’s section passing through the cage fish breeding areas was quite stagnant, but the chance of an outbreak is virtually impossible,” Thảo added.

The stagnant water is blamed on hydropower plants at the upstream area not releasing its water in the last few days.

Previously, also on the Bồ River, a mass fish death occurred in April. — VNS