Carp catching season to raise lobsters in Cua Hoi

An old fisherman named Hai just brought his boat to the port and said that his boat left in the morning and returned after a day of raking. This season, the water is shallow, the mussels are thick on the sand, so each trip of 3-4 crew members can collect about 800 kg to 1 ton. The mussels are put in 50 kg sacks, brought ashore and ice is added, and traders buy them and ship them immediately to the South.

Cua Hoi Port - where Lam River flows into the sea, has many products, including mussels. Photo: Tran Chau

"The boats rake in the river and put all the fish in sacks. We know that traders buy them to sell to lobster farmers and grind them into shrimp feed. They buy all the fish they can find," said an old fisherman named Hai.

Scene of fishermen carrying sacks of imported clams to sell to traders. Video : Chau Lan

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa - a seafood trader at Cua Hoi Port said: We also wait to buy clams to sell at the markets. Clams are small but have meat and sweet water, and can be bought to cook soup or porridge. Unfortunately, we want to buy them but they don't sell them because they send all the clams to the South. We have to wait here, if there are clams, we buy them."

Ms. Hoa, like the other women at the dock, waited for the ship to return with the thought "if we can't catch mussels, we'll wait for clams", because in the process of raking mussels, each ship's crew collected several dozen kilos of mussels, sometimes even shrimp, to sell at the port, each kilo of mussels cost 80,000 VND, which also brought in a few million VND/ship. Each ship sailed during the day, not deducting expenses, they earned 5 - 10 million VND/ship after selling mussels. Each 50 kg sack of mussels was purchased by traders for 600,000 - 700,000 VND, the selling price of 1 kg of mussels was 10,000 - 12,000 VND.

Traders check the carp before loading it onto the truck. Photo: Tran Chau

Fishermen in coastal areas are very good at distinguishing between mussels and clams. Mussels are also mollusks like clams, but their shells are heavier, have more colors, and have prominent veins. Mussels are only as big as the tip of a thumb, while baby clams are larger, with smooth, shiny shells. The larger the clam, the darker brown or purple it is.

This is a picture of a mussel in a sack. Mussels are like clams but smaller and have striped shells.

Clam is a gift from the sea during the dry season. Clam meat is sweet and fragrant, fishermen often exploit it to get its intestines to cook soup, porridge like exploiting mussels in the river. Now that there are traders buying in large quantities, the boats are trying their best to exploit it. The peak exploitation season lasts about 1 week because the output is not much, but such exploitation is premature exploitation, which can lead to a decrease in coastal resources, although the trawlers have improved the mesh size to capture the small ones.

The carp is sometimes called the carp carp. If you find the thin-shelled, long-bodied type, it will have a higher economic value.

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