Keep precious fish for the Mekong

On a wide area full of lagoon ponds along the National Highway 1A in An Thai Trung commune, Cai Be district, Tien Giang province, 12 scientific staff at the National Center for freshwater aquatic products of Southern Vietnam still day and night quietly seeking ways Preserve the extinct precious species of the Mekong .

Hardship with precious fish

Dr. Pham Van Khanh, center director and two masters Trinh Quoc Trong, Huynh Huu Ngai took me to visit the center's premises. Nearly 400 composite tanks from 1-20m ³ , 60 cement tanks with a capacity of 15-30m ³ and 12ha of ponds of the center annually bring to the market 10-20 million types of fish, including many rare fish species like fishing, everything, duong .

In the last two years, the center is famous for its domesticated and successful breeding of rare and endangered fish species of the Mekong due to exterminated fishing such as coral fish, catfish, toad fish. . 'This is part of a project to raise Mekong native fish species funded by the Mekong River Commission and Danida Organization (Denmark) from 2000-2010. It's simple to say, but to preserve a precious fish, we have to sweat with tears ' - Dr. Khanh said.

Master Huynh Huu Ngai (middle) and his colleagues at a fish have been anesthetized.
(Photo: H.ANH)

In 2002 when implementing the project to reproduce artificial toad fish, a precious fish of the Mekong, Mr. Khanh had to go to Vinh Long town to find a rice shop specializing in selling famous coconut milk fish, pleading to buy by being a fish marinated in ice for 70,000 VND / kg for . research. After that, the scientists of the diving center went back to Tien and Hau rivers to Dong Thap and An Giang to order fishermen to buy fish, but . the goblets, although the restaurants sometimes appeared toad . It was not until the scouting center ordered at a high price that the rare toadfish ' swim ' for scientists to study and implement the project.

In the middle of the story, Mr. Khanh told the workers to jump into a large pond using a large round net. The net narrows and the pond surface suddenly rises, and the number of toad fish is a few silver-white scales, and the jagged back is thorny, it weighs 5-7kg / child and waved ' roaring ' in the net. ' Difficult to get this fish. Although the price is high, the center can only buy broodfish in very few years. Bringing fish back to the brothers lost their sleep and insomnia with the times when the sick fish stopped eating and the eggs failed. Now this toad fish is a very valuable asset, "said Dr Khanh.

Initial results

Meanwhile, in a central corner, Master Huynh Huu Ngai - the project leader of the reclamation and development project - together with the workers is considering a fish larger than a dozen kilograms but . lying still. thin.'This is a salmon, the scientific name is Catlocarpio siamensis, one of the giant fish species of the Mekong River, which has been successfully bred and reproduced by the center. Every time you have a health check or a reproductive egg, you have to inject an anesthetic but normally 4-5 people do not do it again - Ngai smiled. At present, the central group of coral fish, parents of 84 children, the largest one weighing more than 25kg, is a feat of scientists.

Catlocarpio siamensis - Catlocarpio siamensis (Photo: Zoothailand)

Master Ngai said: when implementing the fish conservation project in 2003, the center had to send people around An Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long and Tien Giang provinces to buy fish for more than 100,000 VND / kg. Hatchery fishes are very rare, but people have been raising ornamental fish in ponds since very young, so they are mature with captivity. Just breeding and researching and giving birth, until June 2006, the first batch of eggs will hatch but the rate is only 13%. Again research, research and to the breeding season in 2006 the fry rate reached 40%. In March 2006, the center supplied to fishermen and pens in An Giang and Dong Thap with 1,000 breeding fish, currently weighing more than 1kg / head. More than ten thousand other children are being nurtured and monitored by a company in Ho Chi Minh City and its scientists.

Mr. Ngai said, according to the fishermen of Tien and Hau rivers, fish is a species that can reach more than 200kg / head and is becoming increasingly rare. In Cambodia, coral fish has been strictly protected since 1987 and published as a national fish, tagged from March 2005, while in Vietnam, fishermen on Vam Nao River (An Giang) sometimes catch get giant coral fish and . put into meat restaurant.

Currently, scientists in the National Center for Southern Freshwater Aquaculture have started to study other rare fish species of the Mekong River. Dr. Pham Van Khanh said that although it took a lot of time and effort, the center now only collected and nurtured five squirrel tea fish (also known as pickled striped fish) and two pawns, are two very rare and almost extinct fish species of the Mekong River. ' We are continuing to study more species that are at risk of absenteeism such as fish, fish, lemur, fish, fish . to find ways to reproduce artificially and encourage breeding development. . If not done in time, in the near future, many precious fish species of the Mekong will no longer exist before the momentum of catching according to human destructive style '- Mr. Khanh said.

HUNG ANH