A fish farmer who has lost all his fish in the mass fish death on Cha Va River
In their report announced at a meeting yesterday by director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Tran Van Cuong, investigation results of tested water samples showed that heavy rains had brought a large amount of water into the river and made the saline and oxygen levels decreased.
"Fish then stopped eating and died en mass," Cuong said.
The report said that some 254 tonnes of farmed fish of 90 households in Long Son District had died en mass since October 10 with an estimated loss of VND 29 billion (USD1.31 million).
Farmers had laid out their dead fish on part of Highway 51 in Vung Tau City on October 13 to protest, demanding compensation from local seafood processors for polluting the water.
The farmers claimed that farmed fish along the Cha Va River have been dying in mass amount due to the polluted river which has recently turned black with a foul smell.
The claims are similar to last September’s mass fish deaths in the region, when tonnes of fish died and caused farmers a loss of nearly USD800,000.