Sink, move the raft to avoid the storm

The ‘lobster capital’ Song Cau Town (Phu Yen) recorded on September 26 masked the worried atmosphere on the faces of lobster farmers here as a very strong storm named Noru was about to land in the area. Lobster breeding cages are at risk of being hit by strong waves, being forced to abandon and being drifted across the sea. Owners of shrimp cages that have not yet been sold are even more concerned because their property is in a situation where “thousands of pounds are hanging by a hair”.

Mr. Nguyen Van Vung (40 years old) in Phuoc Ly District, Xuan Yen District (Song Cau City) currently has 10 blue lobster cages and 4 cotton lobster cages. Mr. Vung’s 10 green lobster cages have about 1,000 shrimp that have been reared for up to 12 months and reach 4 ounces/head; 4 cages for raising lobsters containing about 200 shrimp have been reared for 18 months and now reach 1kg/head.

According to Mr. Vung, in the past, although lobster has a high price, cotton lobster was consumed by the market for 1.3 million VND/kg, blue lobster costs 900,000 VND/kg, but because the Chinese market is closing the door, traders are not buying anymore as strong as in previous years. When dealers buy, they select shrimp very carefully, so many owners do not sell.

Now that they hear that Typhoon Noru will make landfall with terrible winds, the storm’s radius is very large, leaving shrimp farmers in Song Cau worried their belongings will be “swallowed” by the storm. According to Mr. Vung, his 10 green lobster cages are 400 kg of shrimp, each kg currently costs VND 900,000, the cost is VND 360 million; 4 cages of cotton lobster also contain 200kg of shrimp, each kg of cotton shrimp currently costs 1.3 million VND, the cost is 200 million VND more.

“Nowadays when I’m not at home my ears are always on the radio, when I come home my eyes are always glued to the TV to catch the storm and flood news. I heard that Typhoon Noru is very terrible so this afternoon or tomorrow morning I will lower my 14 shrimp cages to the seabed to avoid the storm. Brothers who raise shrimp in the area trade jobs.

The plastic canisters tied around the cages to let the shrimp cages float are now open, let in sea water, when all the canisters are full of water the cages will sink into the sea. When the storm is over, we will submerge, put the inflatable tube into the inflatable cans, steam out all the water, there is only air in the can, so the cage will automatically float up,” Mr. Vung shared.

Also, these days, lobster farmers in Phu Yen are rushing to sell millions of lobsters to avoid possible damage from Typhoon Noru. Lobster farmers then “evacuate” shrimp to Vung Ro to avoid storms. The sold-out shrimp cages are transported to shore by the owners to avoid being washed away by the waves.

Mr. Pham Dai Duong, secretary of the Phu Yen Provincial Party Committee, directly inspected and urged the response to Typhoon Noru in the city of Song Cau, the country’s largest lobster farming area. Here, Mr Duong called on local authorities to proactively inform and guide farmers on measures to secure, sink or move 82,696 aquaculture cages to a safe area. For the 4,780 people who regularly work, guarding the rafts must be evacuated before Typhoon Noru makes landfall.

In Binh Dinh, cage fish farmers in Hai Minh (Quy Nhon city) also offered training to arm themselves against cages to avoid damage during Typhoon Noru on September 25-26. Specifically, in Nhon Hai Township (Quy Nhon City), there are currently 13 lobster farming households with 7 farm rafts. The number of aquaculture rafts is mainly concentrated in front of the beach. Municipal authorities informed owners to take the cages to Mai Huong Lagoon before 3:00 pm on September 26 to avoid storms.

“We have strictly banned vehicles from going out to sea to fish and have absolutely no permission for people to remain on boats and rafts when the storm hits. Inform people fully to actively secure their homes before the storm hits to avoid damage,” said Mr. Do Cao Thang, chairman of the People’s Committee of Nhon Hai Township (Quy Nhon City).

Harvest arrived shrimp urgently

For the past few days, farmers at the Van Phong Bay cage aquaculture area in Van Ninh (Khanh Hoa) district have been closely monitoring the developments of Typhoon Noru. Because in November 2017 storm No. 12 landed here and left most of the farmers here empty-handed, they have not forgotten this tragedy to this day.

Mr. Tran Ngoc Sy, caged aquaculture farmer in Van Luong Municipality (Van Ninh District), said, “Since July 2022, when farmers in Van Ninh District are preparing to enter the rainy and stormy season, they own cages in the district Van Ninh anti-cage rigging to ensure safety for farmed fish and shrimp. Besides that, people also use the shrimp and fisheries harvest to reach the export weight.

As news broke in recent days that a strong storm is set to make landfall in the central region, although the location is not expected to be directly affected, there will be heavy rain and big waves. So for the last 2 days most of the villagers have been carrying anchors out to brace themselves against the cages and avoid damage.

Mr. Sy’s family currently owns 100 lobster cages. At present, his family has arranged 60 dozen anchors to safely strengthen the cage. For shrimp that have reached harvest time, Mr. Sy has sold about 2/3 of the production. Mr Sy said to ensure safety, he and workers on the family’s rafts would come ashore on the evening of September 26 to stay safe.

According to the Van Ninh District Ministry of Economy, the entire district has 1,304 households, equivalent to 2,743 employees, engaged in aquaculture in sea cages with 1,511 rafts and 39,407 cages for lobster and sea fish.

Van Ninh District Economic Department Chief Mr Nguyen Ngoc Y said that in response to Typhoon Noru, the site regularly updated the progress of the storm and informed people to take the initiative to prevent the site becoming airtight and that’s for sure. When a sea ban is imposed, the community ceases all activity and urges people to go ashore to secure their lives.

To avoid damage from Typhoon Noru, shrimp hatcheries in Phu Yen have collected about 3 million shrimp and moved them to a safe breeding area.

Mr. Huynh Van Khoa, chairman of the Tuy An (Phu Yen) District People’s Committee, said that An Hoa Hai Township – the largest lobster farm in the district – currently has over 500 hatcheries with a number of millions of lobster seeds.

In response to Typhoon Noru (Typhoon No. 4), in the past few days, the locality has continuously updated the situation and predicted the impact of the storm, guiding farmers to actively move the cage or support the cage to property to back up.

According to Mr Huynh Van Khoa, some cages have currently been moved to the coast to avoid safe shelter. The number of cages could not be moved, and people supported them and sank them in the sea. In addition, many cages were picked up by farmers, brought ashore and transported to Vung Ro Bay, Dong Hoa Town (Phu Yen) and Dam Mon Village in Van Thanh Township of Van Ninh (Khanh Hoa) District, to avoid a storm.