QUANG NAM – Mr. Tran Tan dropped a net of 1,000 m long and 2 m wide into the sea at 5 am, three hours later he pulled the net and collected nearly a quintal of trachurus.
Early on March 9, Mr. Tan, 52 years old, residing in Binh Minh commune, Thang Binh district, rode a motorbike nearly 20 km from his house to the beach in Duy Hai commune, Duy Xuyen district. At 5 o’clock, the sky had not yet revealed his face, so he brought the boat to the water’s edge to start a day of living.
Motorized boat, containing a net nearly 1,000 m long, 2 m high, 2 cm mesh. When about 2 km from the shore, Mr. Tan observed where many water bubbles appeared, then used his feet to row the boat and let go of the net with both hands to form a straight line in the sea.
At 8 o’clock, he gathered the net, started the engine to drive the boat ashore. After 20 minutes of removing the fish from the basket, he brought it to the beach, washed it, and put it in a styrofoam box, chilled with ice for preservation. The work continued until 13:00, Mr. Tan removed the net with the result of nearly a kilo of trachurus, selling 30,000 VND per kg.
Duy Hai beach is about 5 km long, this season has few waves, so Mr. Tan comes here to fish. “On a sunny day, with little wind, fish appear a lot. On days with rough seas, heavy rain, or strong winds, there are almost no,” he shared.
Also catching trachurus, Mr. Nguyen Nam, 60 years old, from Duy Hai commune and 12 people pull the net. The net is 500 m long, above the buoy, below is a lead clip, in the middle there is a bag, all are put on a basket boat, about a kilometer from the shore, then dropped. The two ends of the net are wired on the shore.
It took 30 minutes, when the net was dropped and ran parallel to the shore, the boat landed and the labor group divided each person into a job. Each end of the net is tied with a rope and 6 people coordinate to pull together.
Nam said, the net into the water met the wave with the lead block of the net, so it weighed a ton. The pulling process must combine smoothly to create a uniform force. Each person tied a loop of rope to the abdomen and then connected to the net, the purpose of which was to keep the net from bouncing out when the waves hit.
Watch when the wave hits the shore, the group of fishermen standing on the mainland pulls the net in, the waves push it out and keep it. After two hours of struggling with the sea, the net was about 100 meters from the shore, when the fishermen began to gather in a circle. The strong men waded out to the belly of the water to collect nets to prevent the fish from escaping. When the net was reduced to 30 m2, the fish inside the float tried to escape, but the bottom of the lead was blocked, the top of the float floated to the surface to prevent it.
Two people were assigned to pair the bottom of the net, two people put together the net buoy to lock it, the rest gently pulled it to the shore. The net bag was brought ashore to hold nearly a kilo of trachurus and many other species such as birds, barracuda…
The trachurus usually appear in groups, when lucky, they can pull a few pounds. The food of trachurus is sea shrimp, this season the shrimp live near the shore, so they come to hunt and catch a lot, Mr. Nam said.
The trachurus has the scientific name Trachurus, is a genus in the starfish family, looks like tilapia, the body is slightly flat, betel leaf-shaped, brown-white, the largest is over a kilogram, the small one is usually the size of a knife. trachurus has shiny skin, clear eyes is less fishy, is rich in nutrients, sweet meat. Fish can be processed into many dishes such as sweet braised with pineapple, grilled with salt, pepper, lemon, sour soup…