VietNamNet Bridge – Authorities in the central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri denied environmental factors were responsible for the toxin found in marine water.

The red streak that appeared on Quang Binh coast. — Photo antt.vn

A week ago, clams in Ha Tinh died en masse. Nguyen Cong Hoang, head of Ha Tinh’s Seafood Department, was quoted by local newspapers as saying some 50 tonnes of clams died in the aquaculture zone in the districts of Cam Xuyen and Loc Ha.

In Cam Xuyen, some 30 tonnes of clams, bred by 15 households in Cam Linh and Cam Loc communes, died. In other communes, almost 80 per cent of the bred clams died.

Hoang 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, Tran Dinh Lam, chairman of Cam Linh Commune’s People’s Committee, said the clams died due to a change in weather, from spring to summer.

Earlier, Phan Duy Vinh, vice chairman of Ky 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.

The town is home to the Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel Plant, whose toxic spill killed fish en masse in the ocean, bordering four central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien- Hue, in April 2016.

Vinh 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.

A week ago, clams in Ha Tinh died en masse. — Photo thanhnien.vn

In Quang Tri, 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 Thua Thien-Hue Province said no toxins were found in the fish.

Earlier this week, Vo Van Hung, 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 Vinh Linh and Gio Linh districts. He blamed the fish deaths on dynamite fishing.

In Quang Binh, a red streak appeared in the waters near Hon 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. 

Source: VNS