THANH HOA – Taking advantage of the water surface of the Ma River, the people of Yen Duyet fishing village, Cam Thuy district, raise salmon to improve their meals and sell them to restaurants around the area.
The specialty farming of halibut on the Ma River has been developed by the people of Yen Duyet fishing village, Cam Yen commune, and Cam Thuy district for two years now due to the favorable natural conditions and great market demand.
As one of nearly 10 households raising salmon, Mr. Tran Ngoc Trong, 64, said this fish is a specialty in the Ma River. In the past, they lived in the natural environment a lot, but due to the fact that they are now very few, people have sought to keep them in cages. Currently, the farmers are still in the experimental breeding stage, the results are quite positive. “The fish grows fast, the delicious meat is not much different from fish living in the natural environment…”, Mr. Trong said.
Fish cages are built with bamboos split into spokes, an area of 4 m2, about 1.2-1.5 m deep, can raise 200-300 fish. The fingerlings are bought for 15,000 VND/fish, as big as an adult’s finger, the main food is earthworms and small fish. Mr. Trong said that in order to collect enough food for nearly 100 adult fish, he had to hoe for 1-2 hours a day, collecting more than a kilogram of worms.
Occasionally, Mr. Trong uses a racket to pick up fish to check if there is an infection or good growth. “There is no special secret to raising salmon, mainly to clean the cage before releasing and feeding it enough,” Mr. Trong said. Every time when the hydroelectric power plant floods or rains heavily, he has to stay up late at night to watch the water level, then pull the raft to a safe location, avoiding the flood to wash away his property. After more than a year of stocking, Trong’s fish averaged 1.5-2 kg each.
Mr. Nguyen Van Chien’s family, 50 years old, is one of the households that raise the largest number of trout in Yen Duyet fishing village. At the beginning of 2021, Mr. Chien sought to buy more than 150 fingerlings to release. Up to now, the fish has been harvested, the largest size is 3-4 kg.
Pangasius is currently selling well, with prices ranging from 200,000-300,000 VND/kg, larger types and during Tet can sell 500,000-700,000 VND/kg. “Farmers don’t have to bring it to the market, but restaurants come to the place to order, and fish is very popular with the market,” Chien said.
After selling large fish, some are still small, Mr. Chien will continue to take care of them to sell next time. Due to his work as a fisherman, he took advantage of the small fishes to feed the trout without having to dig for worms like neighboring households.
In addition to raising trout, the people of Yen Duyet fishing village are very good at raising carp on the Ma River. This profession has been attached to their ancestors for many generations, there was a time when every household in the village kept cage carp, but now only a few households keep the job, mainly elderly grandparents, workers do not go to work far away. Okay.
Food for carp is mainly young grass, and banana leaves. Every day, after digging for worms to feed the trout, Mr. Trong went to find grass to cut back for the carp. Fish farming helps his family raise 4 children to study, and now have their own families, but none of the children follow their grandparents’ profession.
“The river profession is precarious, the income is also insignificant, I stick with the profession, so I just keep doing it until I have no health anymore…”, Mr. Trong said.
Yen Duyet village has nearly 200 households, 30 households doing river work. In addition to cage fish farming, people mainly work as freelancers, build suction boats, transport hired sand or others work as workers in factories around the area.
Pangasius has the English name Bagridae, belongs to the catfish lineage living in freshwater and brackish water environments, distributed mainly in Africa and Asia. Fish has high nutritional value, is often processed into many delicious dishes such as grilled, braised, braised with banana and beans, cooked with sour…