Unusual fish deaths suspected due to water shock in Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn)- Residents of Mai Hung ward, Hoang Mai town (Nghe An) discovered an unusual mass fish death on the Mai river. Authorities determined that the fish died due to tidal shock after the storm.

Dead fish floating in the river. Photo: PV

Mr. Ho Si Dinh, block 11, Mai Hung ward, has been fishing on the Hoang Mai river for 20 years. Normally, he sets the bottom from night until around 4-5 am, and earns several hundred kilos of fish each night. On the evening of September 25, he set the bottom on the river flowing through block 10. The next morning, he went to collect the bottom. He was very happy when he pulled it up and found it heavy, predicting that there would be a lot of fish.

However, when pulled up, all the fish at the bottom had died. The amount of fish was estimated at about 50 kg, including many types and sizes, mainly large anchovies. This is a valuable fish, about 200 thousand VND/kg.

People scooped up dead fish from the Mai River.

Bringing the dead fish home, after thinking for a while, he decided to tell his wife not to take them to the market to sell but to call the ward People's Committee to check. He thought the fish died of unknown causes, and if unfortunately due to poisoning, it would affect the health of consumers, so he decided to destroy them. In more than 20 years of fishing on the river, he had never seen so many dead fish as this time.

According to his judgment, it is possible that the river water source has been polluted, causing large and small fish to die en masse.

People heard the news of fish floating on the river and rowed out to collect them. Some families collected hundreds of thousands of bird's nests, but all of them were dead. This made many households living along the Hoang Mai River, especially those raising shrimp using water from the river, restless because they feared that if the water source was indeed contaminated, the shrimp would surely die.

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Thuy, Head of the Economic Department of Hoang Mai town, said: The town has also taken samples to test the water quality to see if it affects the aquatic environment or not. Most likely, the fish died due to water shock after the storm, high tides, and sudden saltwater intrusion into the Hoang Mai River.

PV