VietNamNet Bridge – Sea horses have been hunted everywhere in coastal provinces by people, just because they are considered the panacea for gentlemen.

Sea horses favored by men

The Song Cau town in Phu Yen province is called the “metropolis” of sea horses. Numerous sea horse shops can be seen on the Highway No. 1A which goes across the Xuan Thinh, Xuan Canh and Xuan Binh communes. Especially, the shops were always crowded on pre-Tet days, since people flocked there to buy the “gentlemen’s panacea.”

A truck was seen stopped in front of Ty Shop in Xuan Thinh commune. The driver got out of the truck and entered the shop. There were two decanters of liquor soaked with starfish, seahorse. The driver gave the shop owner VND3 million and took the two decanters away.

“As a driver, I have been tied to my seat all day long. I heard this is not good to my sexual capability. Therefore, I have to drink the liquor soaked with sea horses. It is a kind of panacea for men,” he said.

Le Thi Hang, the owner of Ty Shop, said more and more people have been flocking there to buy sea horses, which has pushed the prices of the panacea up. In the past, a couple of fresh sea horses (sea horses can be panacea only if people have them in couple, while a male or a female sea horse separately would be useless) was priced at VND200,000 only. Meanwhile, the price has increased to VND250,000.

Similarly, a decanter of liquor with a couple of sea horses, which was sold at VND1.2 million, now is valued at VND1.5 million.

Hang said that sometimes she could sell 12 liquor decanters and 8 couples of sea horses a day.

Sea horses get exhausted because of the cupidity of people

Diem Truong of Xuan Binh commune has been well known as the sea horse hunting hamlet.

Nguyen Xuan Hiep, a young man, happily said to reporters that he found three sea horses all morning. “This is an encouraging result. Many other people could find anything though they dived under the water all the day,” Hiep said.

The three sea horses could be sold at VND200,000 to the shop owners, with which, Hiep would have some more money to buy new clothes for his children to celebrate Tet.

The Cu Mong lagoon was once the favorite destination for sea horses to come to look for ephemera. However, since people have been hunting for sea horses, they have got nearly exhausted in the area.

“I previously just needed to dive at the 2 meter depth to get a lot of sea horses. But now I have to dive at six meter depth, but sometimes I could not find anything,” said Nguyen Chi Hieu, a young man, showing reporters the empty basket.

Since sea horses are getting exhausted, in many cases, people mistakenly bought fake sea horses. Therefore, people have been advised to spend more money to buy fresh sea horses in order to avoid fake products.

Meanwhile, the owner of Hai Ban Shop said it’d better not to buy dried sea horses, even though they are cheaper than fresh ones.

“In many cases, dried sea horses have no nutrition, because their nutrition has been squeezed after many times of being soaked in liquor already,” he explained.

Also according to him, in general, buyers want couples of sea horses, but they cannot tell the difference between the female and male sea horses. Therefore, they have to pay money for two male or two female sea horses.

NLD