March 30, 2017

Vietnamese province Tra Vinh suffers from shrimp mass death

Some 44 million black tiger shrimp and 75 milion white leg shrimp in Vietnam's Tra Vinh province have so far died due to unpredictable weather and poor farming practices, local news site Dtinews reported.

As of now, over 987 households have been affected by the shrimp mass death.

As of March, Tra Vinh had over 7,000 households raising nearly 600 million black tiger shrimp and 2,240 households raising 524 million white leg shrimp.

"I raised over 100,000 shrimps in four ponds and they all died. I haven't dared to continue raising shrimp. I'm afraid that they will continue dying", Nguyen Van Tuoi, a farmer in Long Hanh Hamlet, was quoted as saying.

The news report said that erratic weather caused such diseases as hepathopathy, which afflicts mostly black tiger shrimp, and white spots to spread.

Duong Van Dom, head of Cau Ngang District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, observed that shrimp farmers didn't follow good farming practices.

Normally, he said, the water in the shrimp ponds must be dealt with before being discharged into the environment but that many farmers didn't do this.

"Many households that have dead shrimps didn't clean the ponds thoroughly before raising another crop. Starting a new crop of shrimp too soon would also have negative effects. The pollution problem hasn't been solved for years. The authorities have tried to give warnings and raise people's awareness to no avail," Dom lamented.

"It's impossible to warn the farmers now. We're planning to consult the district authorities to issue regulations about shrimp farming. At first, we'll popularise the regulations for a year and start punishing violators," Dom said.