(Baonghean.vn) - On the Quynh beaches, stretching from Quynh Phuong, Quynh Lien, Quynh Bang, Quynh Nghia of Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu, there are dozens of fishing households diligently raking, if lucky, each day they earn from 400 - 500 thousand VND, on a bad day, each person only earns about 100 thousand VND. It is hard to make a living with the raking job, but for them, the job is in their blood.
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| From early morning on the tidal beach of Quynh Phuong, Hoang Mai town, there are dozens of people going to dredge the sea. This is a job that helps fishermen in coastal areas to make a living and earn more income for their families. |
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The tool for fishing is a 4-6 meter long rake; the mouth of the rake is attached to a razor in a rectangular iron frame. The characteristic of the rake is that it feeds from midnight until the end of the morning, so to catch the rake, fishermen have to go raking from night. Compared to other seafood exploitation, raking is more difficult but fishermen can go back and forth during the day, and their income is also quite good and relatively stable. |
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| The places where people rake are usually on sandy beaches close to the sea, 0.5 - 1m deep from the water surface. One rake is 10 - 20m long. Each rake session, people have to move over 10km. Not to mention that people doing this job also have to soak in the water continuously for 3-5 hours, their backs bent because they bend over all day. |
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| After raking continuously until 3am when the water level is low, the rakers find a place to rest. In the morning, they wait for the water level to drop around 8 or 9am and continue raking until 11am. Then they pack up their tools, transport them to the car for the owner to collect and then go home. This is the product of a day for Le Thi Tinh. |
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| Sea mullet is a bivalve mollusk related to clams, oysters, geoducks… the largest one is only as big as an adult’s thumb nail, opaque white in color. At the end of April and the beginning of May of the lunar calendar is the beginning of the season to harvest sea mullet. |
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The dat is packed in 60 kg bags and transported for consumption. In addition to being used as food, dat is used as feed for shrimp and fish. The demand from buyers requires large quantities, so the fishing area is expanded. Fishermen who do this job often visit tidal flats in and outside the province. If they see a lot of dat, they will form groups of 20-40 people to exploit them. |
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| Can be used to make many delicious, cool dishes in the summer |
Compared to other seafood exploitation, dredging is more difficult but fishermen can go back and forth in a day, and their income is also quite stable. Besides the dredging tools, which cost about 300,000 VND for the whole season from April to August of the lunar calendar every year, there is no need to invest any additional money.
Nguyen Van
