Following the crab hunters in the mangrove forest

(Baonghean.vn) - Sea crabs in the mangrove forests of Dien Chau (Nghe An) have long been a popular delicacy due to their firm, delicious meat. Catching this 'horizontal' delicacy is not easy.

The weather is cold and the tide is high, but in the mangrove ecological forest of Dien Kim commune, there are still many people who make a living by catching sea crabs. Mr. Duy, a veteran crab hunter in Tien Tien hamlet, said: Dien Kim has nearly 200 hectares of mangrove forest, with a concentration of shrimp, crabs, and fish when the tide is high. Many locals choose crab catching as a livelihood. His hamlet alone has over 30 people doing this job.

Soaking in the mangrove forest to hunt for crabs. Photo: Tien Dung

Currently, it is the crab breeding season, and also the crab hunting season for the locals here. According to Duy, crabs often move from the sea to the river mouth and then find muddy, wet areas in the forest to live. Catching crabs is not easy because crabs do not move in groups but individually, so to catch them requires experience.

Crabs often dig burrows under mangrove roots or in hard ground. Sometimes the burrows are more than 1 meter deep, so you have to use a hook, a small iron bar about 1 meter long, with both ends bent. When you find a burrow with a crab, dig it up with a shovel and use the hook to lure the crab into the hook, then gently pull it out. If it hears a noise, the crab will dive into the water and disappear.

Experienced hunters in Dien Kim often use worms or rotten shrimp as bait to catch crabs. Most of the crabs caught are large ones, from 500 gr to 1 kg. If you catch a few crabs a day, you can rest assured that you will earn 200,000 - 300,000 VND.

Another much easier way to catch crabs is to trap them with a bagua net. Duy said: "Crabs often crawl from the creek bed to the tree roots in the forest to find prey. Traps must be placed along the creek bank to lure them in. But you have to stay up all night to watch, otherwise the flood will wash away dozens of meters of the trap."

Catching crabs with a bagua net. Photo: TD

Duy said: Each day, the trap can catch 1 - 2 kg, if lucky, 4 - 5 kg. The price of grade 1 meat crab is from 250,000 - 300,000 VND/kg, small crabs for breeding cost 3,000 - 5,000 VND/crab depending on the time.

Sea crabs in mangrove forests have delicious, firm meat and are popular in the market, so many people quickly set up sea crab farms, earning hundreds of millions of dong in profit each year.

Currently in Dien Van, there are dozens of households raising commercial crabs, so in addition to catching crabs to sell to the market, people in Dien Kim, Dien Bich, and Dien Van communes also have the job of hunting crab seeds to sell to crab farmers.

Sea crabs in Dien Chau mangrove forests are famous for their delicious taste. Photo: TD

One worrying thing is that the method of hunting in a mass and destructive manner with many means such as octagonal nets and electric shock can deplete sea crabs in particular and the aquatic resources of mangrove forests in general.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hao, a crab hunter in Dien Van confided: In the past, there were a lot of sea crabs, sometimes I could catch a whole bird's nest, but now many people catch them in an exhaustive way, so crabs are rare. Sometimes I go all day and don't catch any./.

Tien Dung