In November, the flood water is gradually receding into the river, bringing with it many shrimps and fish, including the specialty linh fish. Fishermen in An Giang province living in upstream areas such as An Phu district, Tan Chau town, Chau Doc city focus on catching shrimps and fish...
This year, the Mekong Delta has a beautiful flood season, rising high into the fields, so people have a good harvest of fish and shrimp. However, amid the joy is worry when the water level is unusual...
The fish season helps many people in the upstream area of An Giang have a stable income from fishing, in which they catch a lot of linh fish and exploit flood season products.
In November, the flood water is gradually receding into the river, bringing with it many shrimps and fish. Fishermen in An Giang province living in upstream areas such as An Phu district, Tan Chau town, Chau Doc city focus on catching fish and shrimps...
Fishing season
This is the busiest time of the flood season, fishermen call it the season of fish going to the river. The most abundant are still linh fish. From the fields, fish swim to big rivers such as Tien River, Hau River, Cai Vung River, Chau Doc River to go upstream to the Mekong River.
An Giang Province is located at the headwaters of the Tien and Hau rivers, so every year in July, water from the upper Mekong River floods the fields, bringing with it alluvium, shrimp and fish. In November, the water gradually recedes into the river. Fishermen use fishing gear to catch fish, some stand on the banks of the river, some set traps, some cast nets, and some fish.
In Long Thanh ward, Tan Chau town (An Giang province), locals and tourists are familiar with the sight of motorboats scooping fish with nets on the Tien River, called "pumping". This is a rather strange way of catching linh fish in the river area, only appearing in Tan Chau.
Catching linh fish - a specialty fish on the Tien River in Tan Chau town, An Giang province.
Motorboats pulling fish up and down the riverbank during the fishing season have become familiar to the residents of the riverside towns. Many people with free time often go to the embankment to watch the fish being pulled.
Mr. Cum Van Xuyen, the owner of a motorboat pulling a herd, said that for over 20 years he has made a living from this profession. The season for pulling linh fish is from October to November, then stops. The linh fish that stick to the herd are big enough to make fish sauce.
According to Mr. Xuyen, pulling the net depends on the power of the machine so it is not too tiring, but it is important to know how deep to drop the net to hit the fish.
Mr. Xuyen analyzed that the net has a depth of 15m but is usually dropped to a depth of 10m. If it is shallower or deeper, fish can still be caught, but very few, sometimes none at all.
One day, fishermen in the upstream area of An Giang gathered to catch hundreds of kilos of linh fish.
We got on the motorboat to watch Mr. Xuyen fish. There were 4 people on the boat. Mr. Xuyen was the “chief engineer”, he steered the boat, looked at the water current to judge the depth and let the net drop. The other 3 people were responsible for dropping the net, pulling the net and scooping up the fish caught in the net.
The time to release and pull the net is about 15 minutes. On the first release, when slowly pulling the net up, the fish inside the net jumped around. Looking at the school of fish, Mr. Xuyen's eyes lit up, happily saying: "This net has a lot of fish, about 9kg. That's quite good because usually each net catches 3.4kg of fish."
Looking at the fish jumping in the net, they knew how many were caught. There were many fish so everyone was happy. Mr. Nguyen Van Thang held a big net to scoop up the fish. More than 90% of the fish caught were linh fish, the rest were dolphins, sea perch, and scad. Mr. Thang quickly poured the fish into a large barrel containing 10kg of fish.
This plastic barrel can hold 10 kg of linh fish.
With 5 boxes of fish, Mr. Thang's group pulled ashore, handed the boxes to the merchant, drove the fish, and continued to follow the current to catch linh fish. In one day like that, Mr. Thang's group fished for more than 8 hours.
Mr. Thang said he works as a laborer and is paid daily depending on the amount of fish. When there are few fish, he is paid 300,000 VND/day, and when there are many fish, he is paid 500,000 VND/day or more.
As long as the net is still wet, there is money. Pulling nets is different from normal netting because it only lasts for 2 months when the big fish go to the river. After a fishing season, there are a few dozen million dong left over. Save it for Tet shopping and the following months, because when the fishing season is over, roll up the nets and find another job.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thang
Mr. Xuyen estimates that he catches more than 200kg of fish a day, depending on the water level. Fresh fish are delivered to customers, and Mr. Xuyen also ships linh fish to fish sauce factories, linh fish sauce factories...
Happy, sad, the rising tide
There are many fish in the river, so along the canals and streams, many people stand on the banks to catch fish. Mr. Nguyen Van Ve, living in Vinh Nguon ward, Chau Doc city, fishes on Vinh Te canal, saying that every morning he brings his net to the canal bank to catch fish.
Many people in Chau Doc city (An Giang province) gather to fish in Vinh Te canal.
Mr. Ve only fishes in the morning, the fish caught are catfish, snakehead fish, freshwater dolphin, linh fish... Mr. Ve's family processes this fish into braised dishes, fried dishes, soups, the rest is brought to the fish market to sell or dried to eat gradually.
The fish season has helped hundreds of non-fishermen in Chau Doc like Mr. Ve not have to spend money on fish sauce for meals. Having a lot of fish makes daily meals more delicious.
Walking along Vinh Te canal, the scene of fishing and fish trading is bustling. Fisherman Tran Van Hai, residing in Vinh Te commune, Chau Doc city, said that at this time, he and 4 people in his family go fishing together, in one night they can catch several hundred kilos of fish, and most of them are linh fish. After deducting expenses, in one night they can earn more than 2 million VND.
The fish caught, Mr. Hai's group selected the big fish with high prices to sell at the fish market, the remaining linh fish and other small fish were weighed and sold to the fishmongers, at prices ranging from a few thousand VND to 11 thousand VND/kg. This month, the fish farms and fishmongers brought the fish in to sell to fish sauce and fish farming facilities and cage fish farming areas.
This season's linh fish are big enough to be used to make fish sauce or sour soup, which is very delicious.
Mr. Hai confided that in the last 4 years, there has been a good water season, so there are a lot of shrimp and fish. For fishermen and people in the upstream area, a good water season means the water level rises slowly, at a higher level than alert level 1, and this year's flood has met these conditions.
But with the current water level, fishermen like Mr. Hai do not understand why the water is so unusual.
Normally, in August, the water rises and slowly enters the fields. This year, the water came very late and did not enter the fields, so everyone was worried that there would be no flood season. Then, unexpectedly, in September, the water came back and flooded the fields.
Mr. Tran Van Hai
Fishermen like Mr. Hai compare, with the unusual so this year is like having 2 flood seasons. The unusual water level also affects the fish resources.
Pointing at the pile of linh fish, Mr. Hai said that normally linh fish are the same size because they appear at the same time. But this year, the water level is unusual, so the linh fish are also different in size, some are as big as a thumb, and some are as small as a middle finger or little finger. This is something that is rarely seen during linh fish catching seasons.
Linh fish season helps many people in An Giang have a good income.
Mr. Hai guessed that the unusual size of the linh fish was due to the fact that although the water level was low in August, the linh fish were lured back to spawn. In September, the water level rose quickly and the linh fish followed again.
Because there are two flood seasons, the fish come back randomly and some give birth first, some give birth later, so the size of the young fish is also different. For more than a few decades of living by fishing during the flood season, fishermen like Mr. Hai have never seen a year with flood levels like this year.
In previous years, the flood season, whether low, medium or high, still entered the fields according to the July cycle. Previously, the experience passed down by the ancients was "3 years of small floods, 1 year of big floods", but from 2008 onwards, this experience could not be relied on.
Linh fish is purchased by seafood establishments during the flood season in An Giang to make fish sauce or fish sauce.
This fishing season, Mr. Hai is happy because there are many fish, but he is also worried because this year's floods are quite strange for people who know the river area like him. That is the worry of facing unpredictable flood seasons.
The flood season is a close friend of farmers. In the past, they relied on nature to predict which year the flood would be high and which year it would be low, but now, no one knows for sure because the water level is erratic.
And so, every time the flood season begins, thousands of people who depend on the water are worried, wondering what the fishing season will be like?...
Source: https://danviet.vn/bat-la-liet-ca-linh-ca-dong-tom-song-mua-nuoc-noi-an-giang-sao-van-lo-con-nuoc-bat-thuong-20241121104251784.htm
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