Tomorrow, will there be fish in Giang river?

(Baonghean) -For a long time, people have been brazenly entering the core areas of Pu Mat National Park such as Khe Khang (Mon Son commune), Khe Choang (Chau Khe), Khe Thoi (Lang Khe)... to illegally catch seafood using prohibited means, to the point that some rare species are almost extinct. It is time for the authorities to take measures to prevent and clarify the responsibilities of those working in the management and protection of the country's precious assets...

Once upon a time, Mat fish of Giang river

When Pha Lai mountain swallowed the sun, the sunset covered the whole area, Mr. Lo Van Uon and his son, Thai Son village, famous for being the best fishermen in the area, returned from the Giang river bank. In the "ca tip" (basket) hanging from their waist, there were only a few small fish, only the size of a finger.

He lamented: “We went from Vang Mon abyss to almost Le stream from yesterday until now and only caught a few blind fish.” On the stilt house, his grandmother, Vi Thi Thieu, was sitting by the flickering fire waiting for her children and grandchildren to bring food home. Seeing Mr. Uon pouring out a few fish into the basin, his toothless mouth chewing betel, she sadly said: “In the past, when my eldest brother Uon was still young, I stayed at home and put the pot on the stove, my husband carried the net to the wharf to throw a batch and pulled it up and brought it back, so he sat there and picked it up, all the fish were fresh.” If two people went on a dugout canoe to the upper reaches of Be stream or Tang stream, they only needed to drop a net in the morning to catch the fresh fish, about a hundred kilograms of them. Mrs. Thieu explained the meaning of fresh fish, in Thai they called it “pa khinh”, “pa lat meo” (slanted fish), “pa va” (stained fish). Thai people often process fish into dishes: pa pính phe, pa pính top, pa pính giao, ho moc pa... Me Vi Thi Dien, who came to visit next door, added the story: In the past, when coming back from the fields, the women at home would put the pot on the stove, the men would go to the Giang River to cast their nets, and when they returned, they would have a whole pot of fish to eat with "khau him" (a type of sticky rice).

My grandmother said: In the past, people mainly cast nets, cast nets, and cast nets, not using electricity or detonating mines like now. In the Muong Qua area, there were Mr. Lang Van Ti in Xieng village, Mr. La Thu, Mr. Lo Van Tuyen in Co Ba village, Mr. La Binh, Mr. La Duong from Pom village, etc. Good fishermen are Mr. Lang Van Ti in Xieng village, Mr. La Thu, Mr. Lo Van Tuyen in Co Ba village, Mr. La Binh, Mr. La Duong from Pom village... Nowadays, fish are very rare, if you want to eat fresh fish, my sons have to go deep into the ravine for a few days to get a few fresh fish to bring back.

Mr. Lo Van Uon said that the Giang River is the habitat of the cool fish, the fish have from 3 to 6 black dots on their bodies, and the fish scales are pink. The small cool fish are only as big as two or three adult fingers, the largest one weighs only 0.5kg to 0.8kg. Cool fish live in schools in crevices of rocks and in places where waterfalls flow rapidly, they often swim to find food at night. From dusk onwards, the fish begin to follow each other to look for insects on the water surface, algae clinging to rocks where waterfalls flow. Starting from the 8th lunar month is the cool fish season, at this time when passing the waterfalls at the headwaters of the Giang River, the cool fish tilt their bodies and sway silvery white. The cool fish of the Giang River is both healthy and nutritious, the meat is delicious, fatty and has few bones. In Mr. Uon's childhood memories, the Giang River has many species of fish, people wading across the river have to part with the fish to go, people going down to the river to bathe, schools of fish come to surround and play.

Mr. La Van Yeu, a Dan Lai person from Co Phat village, said that in the past, the Dan Lai people ate cool fish instead of rice. At mealtime, each person would put a cassava root in the kitchen, then carry a net to the river and cast a net over the waterfall, which would be enough for a pot of cool fish soup and enough for each person to grill and eat fresh by the fire. When Tet comes or when the Dan Lai people get married, they must have cool fish to offer to their ancestors with the following prayer: "The end of the year and the beginning of the New Year/we only have/A basket of cool fish/A bowl of honey/A cup of light wine/to offer to our ancestors/To bless us/to prosper/The stream is full of fish...".

And in the memory of every local, Muong Qua in the past was a fertile field, rich in rice. In particular, there was a type of sticky rice called “khau cu phang” (golden sticky rice), the sticky rice had an oily texture like chicken fat mixed in, a shimmering golden color, and a fragrant aroma. Khau cu pang sticky rice eaten with cool fish from the Giang River was absolutely delicious. That’s why there is a proverb that is still passed down to this day: “Muong Qua rice, Giang River fish”.

Tomorrow, what about...?

From Pha Lai wharf where there is a dam blocking the Giang River to bring water to irrigate the Muong Qua fields, we followed La Van Thai and his son from Thai Son village on a motorboat up the Giang River to go fishing.

Mr. Thai said that when going fishing professionally, in addition to fishing gear, in the past, when our ancestors caught a lot, the only way to preserve it for a long time was to dry it, but now there is ice in a styrofoam box to preserve the fish. Joining us in fishing deep in the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park, there were a few other groups.

Fish were caught in the upper reaches of the Giang River in the core zone of the National Park.
Pu Mat

After a whole day of fishing, Thai and his son only caught a few fish. Thai said: Now they use electric shocks, mines, and more recently, people have invested in diving gear and used fish guns to catch catfish, eel fish, etc. deep in caves.

Returning to Pha Lai wharf, I met Mr. Lo Van Peng, a Xieng villager, who was resting after a trip deep into Khe Bung village, in a short-sleeved shirt, shivering from the cold. After smoking a pipe of tobacco, he quickly carried the styrofoam ice box containing fish onto the floor and weighed it for the owner of the raft-built restaurant located right at Pha Lai wharf. However, when sorting out the fish, there were only a few fresh fish, he clicked his tongue and said: “I left the day before yesterday, it was so windy and cold, but I only got this much fresh fish. There aren’t many fresh fish these days, there are only a few like loach, catfish, and catfish, and the nick fish is extinct. Since I was little, I followed my grandfather and father to go fishing, just by casting a short net, I could get a full bucket of fish. But now, not only fresh fish but also many delicious fish species of the Giang River are becoming increasingly rare. In the past, when casting nets, good people could get a few hundred kilos of fish, but now, only 1 to 2 kilos is considered a lot.

Seeing the raft restaurant owner pay Mr. Peng a kilo of cool fish for 200 thousand dong. The restaurant owner, Mr. Dung Seo, said: Cool fish is now a specialty to serve the "gods" who are tourists who come to visit and bring it to the restaurant to become a rare specialty outside of town. Downstream, the price is also getting more and more expensive and it is very rare...

Mr. Vi Van K, a professional fisherman from Xieng village, said that the people who go fishing are mainly local people who go in groups, each group has from 1 to 3 people. The form of fishing is also diverse, from traditional fishing such as netting and fishing. Currently, professional people fish using modern tools that are prohibited such as electric shock and explosives. According to Mr. K, with just a set of shocks including a 24-shell shock, a 75-ampere battery, it is enough to make the 0.9-10 kg fish lying deep at the bottom of the river "crawl" along the electric shock current to float up. Throwing the explosives in just a few seconds, the schools of big and small fish float, the fisherman just needs to scoop the fish onto the boat. We asked if anyone checks, controls or prohibits fishing? He answered without hesitation: "No one asks, why check, whoever wants to catch the fish in the river, they can catch them, but the mountains and forests are so vast, who can check?"

Electric shockers are used for fishing.

Talking about the current situation of Giang River fish resources, especially the cool fish which is gradually depleting and at risk of extinction, the Chief of Mon Son Border Guard Station, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Vinh said: Recently, the border guards have been implementing the work of developing a plan to strengthen management, supervision, and punishment of intentional violations in the use of electric shock to illegally catch fish on rivers and streams. Every month, the Station assigns a team of 6 people to patrol each village. Regularly assign professional working groups to coordinate with local authorities to propagate the harmful effects of overfishing leading to the extinction of Giang River fish.

Station Chief Nguyen Trong Vinh added that, however, there are still some subjects who intentionally violate the law. In 2012, 7 cases were detected and handled, 10 subjects; 6 grams of explosives, 1 detonator and 3cm of slow-burning wire were confiscated; over 5 million VND were fined, 8 electric shockers were confiscated. 1 case and 2 subjects were caught and handled for buying, selling and using explosives. In the first quarter of 2013, the Station caught 2 cases in Co Phat village, 1 case was fined 700 thousand VND for a subject in Yen village who used electric shockers to catch fish.

We contacted Mr. Nguyen Phuc Chien, Head of Pha Lai Forest Ranger Station, Pu Mat National Park Forest Ranger Department, to have a meeting to learn more about the protection of wild animals as well as the protection of seafood resources in the area managed by the station, but he refused to work with the reason that he had not yet received permission from his superiors.

In fact, the days spent in Mon Son commune showed that people in the buffer zone still secretly or brazenly bypassed the control of the authorities into the upper reaches of the Giang River in the strictly protected area of ​​Pu Mat National Park to fish using various means, including prohibited means such as mines, electric shocks... to the point that some rare fish species are almost extinct.

Not only fish species, other rare wild animals listed in the Red Book in Khe Khang area, upstream of Giang river, but also in other areas such as Khe Choang, Khe Thoi… are in a similar situation. It is time for the authorities to take measures to prevent and clarify the responsibilities of those who manage and protect the country’s precious assets!

Pham Ngan