THỪA THIÊN-HUẾ — Authorities in the central provinces of Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị denied environmental factors were responsible for the toxin found in marine water.

A week ago, clams in Hà Tĩnh died en masse. Nguyễn Công Hoàng, head of Hà Tĩnh’s Seafood Department, was quoted by local newspapers as saying some 50 tonnes of clams died in the aquaculture zone in the districts of Cẩm Xuyên and Lộc Hà.

In Cẩm Xuyên, some 30 tonnes of clams, bred by 15 households in Cẩm Lĩnh and Cẩm Lộc communes, died. In other communes, almost 80 per cent of the bred clams died.

Hoàng said his department was working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s environment administration to test the clams and determine the cause of their deaths.

Meanwhile, Trần Đình Lam, chairman of Cẩm Lĩnh Commune’s People’s Committee, said the clams died due to a change in weather, from spring to summer.

Earlier, Phan Duy Vĩnh, vice chairman of Kỳ Anh Town’s People’s Committee, said the dead fish found on a local coast near Formosa plant were washed ashore after being discarded by a fishing boat.

A week ago, clams in Hà Tĩnh died en masse. — Photo thanhnien.vn

The town is home to the Hưng Nghiệp Formosa Steel Plant, whose toxic spill killed fish en masse in the ocean, bordering four central provinces of Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên- Huế, in April 2016.

Vĩnh said the quantity of dead fish was just some 3kg. He suspected the fish to have died after being discarded by fishermen or due to blast fishing, in which fishermen use a dynamite to kill fish.

In Quảng Trị, the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on Wednesday announced the results of the tests conducted on dead fish found at local beaches earlier this month. The results provided by a public laboratory in neighbouring Thừa Thiên-Huế Province said no toxins were found in the fish.

Earlier this week, Võ Văn Hưng, the department’s director, denied the total volume of dead fish was 30 tonnes.

He said it was a rumour and confirmed that some 10kg of dead fish were collected from beaches in the province’s Vĩnh Linh and Gio Linh districts. He blamed the fish deaths on dynamite fishing.

In Quảng Bình, a red streak appeared in the waters near Hòn La Port. Locals suspected the streak, which was 500m long and 20m wide, to be an environmental phenomenon, but the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment said it was caused by the blooming of an algae species.

The department’s testing results found no polluting substance in the red water. It noted that the incident occurred every year on the local coast. — VNS