Fish farmers in Van Phong Bay in Khanh Hoa Province are appealing for help after they claimed that gangsters were intimidating them into selling lobsters for cheap.
Over the past months, dozens of high-speed boats and wooden boats have been seen swarming around lobster farm rafts on Van Phong Bay in Van Ninh District, some 60 kilometres to the north of Nha Trang City.
The alleged gangsters flocked to lobster rafts in Van Hung, Van Thang, Van Binh, Van Thanh Communes and Dam Mon Peninsula and ordered farmers to sell suffocated lobsters for them at a cheap price.
As the fishermen refused their proposal, the group of gangsters threatened and attacked them.
A man threatens farmers in Van Phong Bay
In the Son Dung area where there are many shrimp farming rafts, farmers feed their lobsters from 8 am to 10:30 am daily and then checked if the shrimp are dead or suffering oxygen shortages to catch them for sale.
At that time, high-speed boats or wooden boats started approaching lobster rafts and ordered the farmers to sell all the newly-dead lobsters for them.
Due to fears of being attacked, some lobster farming raft owners reluctantly agreed with their proposal.
Authorities in Khanh Hoa have ordered local police to investigate the case by June 26.
