Siamese fighting fish and the famous fish sauce of the West

"God's gift" in the acid sulfate soil

According to Ms. Doan Thi Ut (residing in Hamlet 6, My Thanh Dong Commune, Duc Hue District, Long An), betta fish are also known as fighting fish or Siamese fighting fish, pompano fish or red-striped or black-striped flag fish. This type of fish can survive in poor water quality environments, and can even easily adapt to severe floods or droughts in the Mekong Delta. The main food of betta fish is plankton, larvae in the water, and dead shrimp and fish, of which their favorite food is cotton and rice.

Betta fish are considered a "heavenly gift" in alum soil, helping many people earn extra income.

"From ancient times until now, people in this swampy land have considered betta fish as a gift from heaven. Anyone who sees fish can just scoop them up without any landowner stopping them or charging them any money. People who specialize in scooping fish only need to look at the color of the water, the reflection of the water around the bushes, weeds, etc. to know if there are betta fish there or not," said Ms. Ut.

Since the late 80s, fresh water from Dau Tieng Lake (Tay Ninh) has washed away the salinity in some alum fields in Duc Hue, so farmers have started to improve the alum soil, and the summer-autumn rice crop has also appeared here. However, there are still many areas of uncultivated swamps due to the high acidity of the soil. And that is the habitat of Siamese fighting fish, and also the livelihood of many people.

Betta fish usually live in patches of sunlight.

In the Duc Hue and Thanh Hoa saline swamps, most people still have many difficulties, the young people mainly work as workers in industrial parks and clusters far from home. Recently, many companies have had difficulty finding orders, leading to many workers losing their jobs, reducing working hours, and some of them have chosen to return to their hometowns to live a leisurely life, catching Siamese fighting fish to earn extra income. That is why this saline swamp has hundreds of new fishers.

The fisherman must constantly move in chest-high water to reach the big batches of fish. Sometimes, he has to travel more than 10 km a day in the swamp to catch the desired amount of fish, which takes a lot of energy. Both men and women can dive to catch Siamese fighting fish, but because the amount of fish has decreased in recent years, he has to travel long distances frequently. Now, mainly men stay with this "heavenly bounty" hunting job.

After being caught, most of the fish are brought to Ut Lon facility to be sold as fish sauce.

Mr. Mai Van Ty (36 years old, living in My Thanh Dong commune, Duc Hue district) shared. "I usually go to fish from 6 am to 2 pm in most of the rice fields, and for far away places I travel by motorbike. Every day, I can catch 2 - 3 kg, and for those who are healthy and experienced, 5 - 7 kg is normal, the selling price is from 200,000 - 300,000 VND. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I have been unemployed at the company, so I stay at home to catch fish until now. In general, this job is hard, but the income is stable, enough to take care of the family".

Famous fish sauce

Snakehead fish, snakehead fish, etc. in Dong Thap Muoi region are all made into fish sauce and are commonly called “mam dong”, which is very popular with diners near and far. Therefore, more than 10 years ago, Ms. Doan Thi Ut retired from her job as a fish collector and tried making fish sauce at home. After more than 2 years of many failures, she finally succeeded and provided the market with the famous Ut Lon fish sauce.

Good news spreads far and wide, now Mrs. Ut's betta fish sauce has "spread its fragrance" in many provinces and cities with the sale of nearly 100,000 jars/year, the selling price of each jar weighing 0.5 kg is about 120,000 VND. Thanks to the cleaning, hygienic process and no chemical mixing, Ut Lon betta fish sauce has been recognized by Long An province as a 3-star product in the One Commune One Product program - OCOP Long An.

Every year, Ut Lon facility supplies the market with nearly 100,000 jars of betta fish sauce.

"The fish sauce has a fragrant aroma, is delicious, and goes well with rice. I often enjoy the fish sauce with long beans, boiled meat with vermicelli or rice paper rolls. Overall, it's very delicious and impressive," said Le Van Duc, a native of Ha Tinh, married and living in Long An, about the fish sauce.

Duc Hue and part of Thanh Hoa and Duc Hoa districts are transitional areas, intersecting two typical terrains of the Southeast and Southwest, so 100% of the land area is heavily contaminated with alum and there is no fresh groundwater, so agriculture is slow to develop. Obviously, this is a "low-lying" area in terms of development in Long An province. The saline and alum swamps here are still immense, so people who make a living by fishing for betta fish will probably stay with this profession for a long time.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/ca-lia-thia-va-mon-mam-tru-danh-mien-tay-185240227215458639.htm