How phenol and cyanide toxins destroy the seabed in Central Vietnam

In Ha Tinh, a group of scientists surveyed the area of ​​​​Ron Ma cape and Son Duong island, 7.5 km from the discharge outlet of Formosa Company. Accordingly,The bottom of Ron Ma cape has many large boulders and attached organisms.Sparse corals do not form reefs with small size, the most dead are group f.avia, turbinaria, favites, goniastrea, montipora. Typical coral fish groups such as Holocentridae rockfish, Chaetodontidae butterflyfish... have only a few individuals with a density ofless than 30 individuals per 250 m2 of coral reef area.

Corals in Son Duong island died about 35-40%, commonly Acropora species, Montipora coral.

This area only has a few individuals of no economic value, small in size, belonging to the family of damselfish and betta fish.. Although the bottom was cut and there were many small holes, the research team did not find any species of the goby family.(Gobiidae) -usually live in clean environment.

Diving in Hon La area (Quang Binh), the group saw the reef.Corals are distributed along the shore to a depth of 4 m, commonly Acropora branch corals, but the dead coral coverage is about 45%.

Corals are sparsely distributed, many have died, with coverage below 10% in Hon Nom (Vung Chua).Common dead coral genera are Montipora, Favia, Favites, Goniastrea.

Typical reef fish families were absent, with the absence of Amphiprion spp., common on inshore reefs.

Research in Cua Tung, in the Quang Tri sea area, the ecosystem is quite poor and no economic fish species were found, only a few individuals of the damselfish family. The team also did not find juvenile lobster larvae in the rock holes - although this is the best time of year to exploit this species. Pictured is damselfish on the bottom.

Scientists discovered the dead oyster with the remaining flesh decomposed. Besides, there were quite a few oyster shells scattered on the bottom.

At Thua Thien - Hue beach, scientists surveyed Son Cha island. Here, many corals were dead and white, especially Montipora, Pachyseris, Galaxea, Pocillopora. Economic fish species and typical for reef habitats such as grouper, termite, and wrasse were absent, mainly fish of no economic value. Previously, this place had a relatively high density of grouper, but at the time of monitoring, no mother fish schools were seen.

The coral reef of Bai Chuoi, north of Hai Van is also in a state of white death, with a high proportion of Acropora and Montipora branch corals.

Bottom sediments in some places are covered with a dark yellow - brown film.

Crabs died in coral holes at Chuoi Beach.

Drowning carp (Caranx ignobilis).In addition to the problem of biodiversity loss and destruction of underground habitats, the issue that worries many experts is that the phenomenon of fish deaths willloss of traditional spawning grounds for economically valuable fish species, leading to ecological imbalance.

Some of the waste will be diluted in the marine environment over time, but it could take decades to hundreds of years for coral reefs to recover, depending on the level of pollution, a scientist said.

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