According to the Yen Bai Provincial Transport Department, the boats were built and operated by private tourism companies and residents in the area to serve visitors to the lake.
"As the number of visitors has increased, more boats have appeared," the department said. "Most of these boats were converted from being cargo boats so failed to meet the requirements for registration."
Le Thanh Do from the Thac Ba Lake Management Board said that they have had to suspend many boats which don't have registration certificates.
"Many of those boats are still being anchored on the lake," Do said. "We've asked the boat owners to remove their boats as quickly as possible to protect the local environment."
Director of the Thac Ba Lake Tourism Services Collective, Duong Van Sau, said that two of their boats have been suspended.
Director of the Thac Ba Lake Tourism Services Collective, Duong Van Sau, said that two of their boats have been suspended.
“We had invested over VND2 billion to rebuild these two boats from two cargo boats," Sau said. "Now we've sold one to a household who are raising fish on the lake at VND200 million. And we're trying to find buyers for the second. We've suffered big losses but there's no other option. We have to obey the safety regulations."
