Go to Trang An to see… algae

Algae not only contribute to improving and preserving the environment but also create the special landscape of Trang An. Photo: Ngoc Linh

In the late 70s and early 80s of the 20th century, during the dry season, when there was famine and subsidy, I had to stop by the Trang An area and encountered a wild and desolate scene. The shallow lagoons were filled with muddy water. As far as the eye could see, there were wild Japanese water hyacinths. On the shore, the hillsides were bare and the soil was purple and red because people had cut down big and small trees for firewood. All day, with a dirty face, a load of firewood from the deep mountains of Trang An wandered with the gong to the ferry dock, the price was not even half a cow's worth of rice.

The wind of Renovation has gradually brought new colors to Trang An. Among the starving and pale young men of Trang An Hoa Lu, Xuan Truong seems to have been chosen. To be more precise, he has survived the harsh screening of the budding private business style involved in the collective economic system. Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh, struggling, has revealed businessmen with a business style that makes the people happy and the State happy! And a flourishing Trang An has taken off to become a national scenic spot and a World Heritage Site.

One of the reasons, the pleasure of going to Trang An without getting bored, is to go and see… the wandering!

Watch? Of course.

Nature is inherently wonderful, that is to say. In plain terms, it is clever. As our grandparents said, "Heaven created it this way"!, "Heaven loves and sends gifts, and when it bends, Heaven constricts and holds them back." Heaven's gifts are not something extremely precious, but are just simple, like this weed. Because it is in accordance with the wishes of people today, many living beings repent and turn back, which is the shore to do many good deeds, including protecting the environment.

Algae are like a precious thing of nature! Algae leisurely. Algae drifting. Algae wandering endlessly from the ferry dock to the most dangerous caves along the entire length of the Trang An river and stream. The presence of algae makes the Trang An water seem to have more colors of life. Because the river and stream water here is not lifeless and white like the rivers and streams that are present everywhere in our country. That pale water contains the bitterness of poisons considered to be plant protection (!?). The medicine that people have meticulously counted has more than 200 types with hundreds of thousands of tons, sometimes openly, sometimes secretly imported into our country. That poison has dissolved into the land, rivers, lakes, ponds and streams of Dai Viet for decades now. In that opaque or slippery white water, there are no things like larvae, not to mention the rice field. The banks are still covered with thousand-year-old grass, but where can you find the familiar sounds of grasshoppers and locusts? And the croaking sound of frogs and toads?

Magical green in Trang An. Photo: Ngoc Linh

So when I got back to Trang An, I don't know why, among all the colorful things, I only paid attention to... seaweed!

I remember sitting with the environmental expert for Xuan Truong Construction Enterprise. He shared his admiration for the efforts of the enterprise over the years in the drastic process of protecting the environment for Trang An tourist area. The dredging and clearing. The planting of trees, protection of the ecosystem. The improvement of the water environment. And of course, the seaweed growing and farming.

The humble dogtail seaweed, according to the expert, has up to 5 species. In general, Trang An seaweed is a neutral species, easy to live. But if it gets stuck in dirty water, in short, it is not clean, it will be difficult to live! Seaweed is a criterion, a test of water quality, environment. Old story, old work, Xuan Truong teachers and students had to spend five or seven hours cultivating and mass-producing the seaweed in Trang An rivers and streams. Was it successful at first? It had to be the fourth time, the fourth batch, for the dogtail seaweed to take root. And to grow and flourish like now is a strict process? I thought this dogtail seaweed was easy to grow, but suddenly I was shocked to realize that how many habitats, how many lifeless white water areas could multiply to produce the magical green color like Trang An rivers and streams?

Is there anything other than algae that can be used to improve and preserve the environment? The expert laughed and said there are many. Japanese water fern (water hyacinth), water bamboo… for example! But it is difficult to compare anything with the water purification ability of algae. Moreover, in terms of form, algae is the living thing that creates the soul of rivers, lagoons, especially the landscape of Trang An!

I immediately nodded at the expert's accurate comment. And also sympathized with him. Because I was not unfamiliar with the green water fern in Trang An. My village had a low-lying rice field that was flooded all year round. In addition to the sedge, there was also a vast land of water fern that was densely packed with water fern. The reason why shrimps and many other types of fish, crabs, and snails thrived was because the water fern kept the water in the rice fields a bit sour and salty, muddy but clean! In the afternoon, craving a fish meal, soaking in the green water of the vast water fern, I was startled to see a rainbow close by and suddenly felt like I was entering the wilderness.

Yet in just a few years, without any natural disasters or enemies! Just a few varieties of DDT, 666... and dozens of pesticides combined with the shallow conformity of our people have "assassinated" the rice fields full of precious biosphere reserves! The flooded rice fields are gradually dying. The dirty, strange water can no longer support the sedge and algae. The green algae have silently provided food for pigs and composted to fertilize the fields, and later I learned that it also has a divinely appointed function of keeping the water clean. That algae has died out, died miserably. The rice fields have no more water, they are dry. The rainy season is approaching, the white water is so disgusting that all aquatic species, even leeches, are gone! Strangely, in the sudden dreams of old age, the rice fields filled with the green algae of childhood suddenly return from time to time?

… The boatwoman who took tourists to Trang An was busy rowing the boat to retrieve a plastic bottle that a visitor had accidentally dropped. Her faltering movements made her stumble off the boat. Luckily, she was only standing up to her waist. I didn’t pay much attention to the cheerful laughter and teasing of the visitors, but was stunned by a picture with a pleasing color harmony. In the shimmering water of Trang An, the unintentional gap made the soft skin seem to come to life because of the background of green seaweed and the lotus flower bushes next to the noon-day nap, suddenly becoming so bright!

When the skillful boatwoman leaned over the boat, I caught a glimpse of some small shrimps and sticky rice shrimps. Suddenly I remembered the rice field shrimps that have the habit of hiding in seaweed. Any rice field with a lot of seaweed must have a lot of shrimps! The soil of my hometown Thanh is probably from the same source as the Gia Vien - Hoa Lu - Trang An valley, which is full of shrimps. People specialize in making the best shrimp paste. Thinking more about the boxes and transparent plastic jars filled with dried shrimps, some packed with shrimp paste, sold everywhere at the boat station. That is the Trang An shrimp brand.

Floating on the Trang An cruise, I suddenly wandered! I had to stay in Hue for a long time, staying at An Cuu. I knew the scenery, and even the folk song "Ngu Binh Mountain is round in the front and crooked in the back/An Cuu River is muddy in the sun and clear in the rain". The thing is, admiring the low mountain named Ngu Binh in Hue , it really has a strange shape, round and crooked? And the An Cuu River is clear when it rains, but muddy when it's sunny. Why? It turns out that in the An Cuu River water, there is a parasite that holds a type of algae that, when exposed to rainwater, spreads out and transforms into green chlorophyll.

The story that was thought to be forgotten turned out to be a later study of that algae, which turned out to be a "subspecies" of dogtail and foxtail seaweed. The Binh Tri Thien Department of Agriculture tried to cultivate that algae in a section of the An Cuu River, and now it has spread luxuriantly!

Last year, I was floating in a bamboo boat on Van Long Lagoon. Startled, I looked closely at the strange dark and light green patches under the water. I stopped the boat. Oh my god, it can’t be wrong, it can’t be wrong. Seaweed! Where did this come from? The boatwoman said dryly, “It’s been here for a long time, sir! And this species reproduces so quickly!”

The natural Van Long lagoon that emerged many years ago was formed from the route of water control on the Day River. It was thought that this wild lagoon was only dominated by sedge and reeds, but now it has an aquatic plant called dogtail seaweed. Could this plant be self-growing or transplanted from Trang An? The presence of dogtail seaweed will eventually create a Van Long with clean, natural water quality, bringing a new and lasting impression to visitors!

I indulged my friend by scooping up a handful of green, still-crisp seaweed and putting it in a plastic bag with a little water. Like she said, put it in the miniature landscape in front of the house to clean the water and what else. But it was an excuse for another old friend to jokingly imitate the poem of the ancestors: "Like the printed herbs of Trang An / Bringing out the whole mountains and rivers of Bai Dinh"

It seems like my old friends are going to invite me to go to Trang An again. Let's go! Because we'll have a chance to go see... the sights!

Spring Ba

Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/di-trang-an-coi…-rong-280969.htm