Hunting food for lobsters, earning millions every day

From 7 a.m., the section of the Gulf river, the foot of Ky Ninh bridge (Ky Ha commune, Ky Anh town, Ha Tinh province) appeared small boats. There are usually 2 people on the boat, who are family members. They drive the boat to the deep water area, and many rocky beaches to catch black mussels (small size bivalve mollusks) to sell to traders (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

To keep his body warm when diving for a long time underwater, fisherman Tran Tuan (24 years old) must wear a professional frog suit. The young man also cannot lack diving goggles to help prevent water from entering his eyes and clearly see the river bottom (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

When entering the water, the diver holds an oxygen tube, wraps a lead bandage around his body and carries a woven mesh bag around his neck (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

Divers are connected to the boat by an air coil hundreds of meters long. While the divers work, the remaining people on the boat must observe the water surface and air bubbles to adjust the compressor capacity accordingly and handle problems (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

Each dive usually lasts 5-10 minutes until the sack is full of mussels, the fishermen will come to the surface (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

Mussels are often found in the mud layer where the riverbed is rocky. Fishermen use a homemade 2-tooth rake to dig out or use their hands to remove and sort themselves (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

According to fisherman Tran Minh Dai (58 years old, Bac Ha village, Ky Ha commune), mussel divers must have good health and experience. “The diving process can cause problems such as the tank running out of oxygen, the engine shutting down midway while in a deep water position. If detected, the diver must emerge immediately, or else his life will be lost. This area already exists. People died because of lack of experience,” said Dai (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

After a period of diving from 7-12 o’clock, at this time the river water was also high, Mr. Tran Minh Dai and his son Tran Quoc Khanh (22 years old) returned to the shore with mussels full of boats (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

Mussels were covered with black mud, they had to be transferred to the river and washed on the spot (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh said that mussel diving appeared in the locality 2-3 years ago when traders came back to buy. Black mussels are found on the bottom of the river but no one noticed it before. “When traders came back to buy and transport to the South to puree as food for lobsters, we just started doing this job,” said Mr. Khanh excitedly (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

According to Mr. Khanh, black mussels are bought by traders for 180,000 VND/quintal. Within about 5 hours in the morning, his father and son exploited more than 7 quintals, bringing in an income of more than 1.2 million VND (Photo: Nguyen Duong).

After washing, they will transfer the mussels ashore and call traders to come to the place of purchase. Mussel diving, although hard and dangerous, in return helps them have a stable income (Photo: Nguyen Duong).