Unique way of hunting clams with plastic cups of Nghe An farmers

Red-claw crab in the lower Lam River. Photo: Huy Thu

Mr. Cao Van Nam in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune said that he has been hunting clams for many years. At first, clam hunters in the area often collected discarded plastic bottles (coke bottles, cooking oil bottles, mineral water bottles...) and cut off the top part, leaving only the bottom half to make bait tubes to attract clams.

In the past two years, plastic waste pipes have been replaced with convenient plastic cups. Workers have purchased 400 - 800 new plastic cups to use as tools for fishing.

People in Chau Nhan commune (Hung Nguyen) hunt for clams in the fields using plastic cups. Photo: Huy Thu

According to Mr. Nam, the advantage of plastic cups is that they are compact, can be stacked in bags, easy to transport and convenient to use when hunting. Another thing is that the cup is smooth, so if the crabs fall into the cup, they cannot crawl out.

Bait for hunting crabs is still a mixture of rice bran and stinking shrimp. The rice bran is roasted until fragrant, mixed with stinking shrimp, using a small broom to stir the mixture of bran and shrimp and then spread a thin layer inside the bait tube.

Using a plastic cup to hunt for clams makes baiting even simpler. Clam hunters can carry the bait tube on their back, hang the bait box in front of their stomach, and bait whichever tube they drop.

Compact plastic cups are very convenient for hunting clams. Clam hunters can drop the cup and spread the bait at the same time. Photo: Huy Thu

According to clam hunters in Chau Nhan commune, in addition to the quality of the bait tube, the choice of rice field to place the bait tube determines the amount of clams caught.

When choosing a field to place a bait tube, you must consider whether the field has many crabs and whether anyone has placed bait tubes before. Fields with many caves, near large ditches, and adjacent to the Lam River often have many crabs. If someone else has just placed bait tubes in a field, and you go back to set bait the next day, the probability of getting crabs is not high.

The technique of placing bait tubes using plastic cups is quite simple. In shallow fields, you just need to "mount" the plastic cup firmly to the edge of the field, with the mouth of the cup tilted upwards at a 45-degree angle, ensuring that the crabs can crawl in, but not out. Each bait tube is placed about 1 meter apart, continuously in long rows.

Placing plastic cups to hunt for crabs in the fields in Chau Nhan commune (Hung Nguyen). Photo: Huy Thu

After placing the bait tube, the mussel hunter can go home or do other work. When the field is quiet and deserted, mussels at the foot of the rice fields will come out of their burrows, crawl into the bait tube and get stuck there. Usually, after a few hours of placing the bait tube, the mussel hunter will go to the field to empty the bait tube.

Chau Nhan commune currently has 7-8 households specializing in clam hunting, including the families of Vo Van Que, Vo Van Khanh, Cao Van Nam, Khoa Van Viet... who have been clam hunting for many years and have a lot of experience.

Each household of Cao Van Nam and Khoa Van Viet has 800-900 bait tubes. In addition to hunting clams in the fields in the commune, they also go to neighboring communes along the Lam River such as Hung Loi, Xuan Lam... to practice their profession.

Mr. Vo Van Que, Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune, shared: His family has 480 bait tubes, all of which are convenient plastic cups that he bought about 2 months ago. Hunting for clams with plastic cups is more effective than other types of bait tubes.

According to Mr. Que, each hunting session from noon to afternoon or from evening to morning, he can catch 5 - 10 kg of clams. After the flood, the clam population has grown rapidly, and clam hunters can also catch more.

Currently, fresh clams that people hunt are sold to purchasing points in the region and sold to local people to process into food at a price of 45,000 - 50,000 VND/kg.

The caught clams are sold to purchasing points or to local people for food processing. Photo: Huy Thu

Each day in the fields, households that hunt for clams in Hung Nguyen district earn several hundred thousand dong per household, and if they are lucky, they earn more. Not only the earthworms, clams are also a valuable natural resource, a “heavenly gift” that needs to be exploited reasonably and protected by the people in the lower Lam River.