VietNamNet Bridge – In Cam Ranh bay, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam’s largest grouper breeding area, Chinese not only purchase but also illegally raise lobsters and groupers, Saigon Tiep Thi reported.



This situation has taken place for a long time but the local authorities have been confused in dealing with it, though they always emphasize the significance of the bay’s position in defense and economics.

Most fishermen and traders near Cam Ranh port know about Chinese shrimp and fish cages in the bay. Mr. Dat, a local fish breeder, said that the lobster farm of a Chinese man named A Xiu are located close to Cam Ranh port. Around 200m from the shore are grouper farm of another Chinese. Each farm is worth a billion dong (hundreds of USD).

There are strong houses in A Xiu’s farm. The farm has a fence and gate, different from nearby makeshift farms of Vietnamese.

The another farm is only 200m from Cam Ranh port and from this position, Cam Ranh military port can be observed very clearly. This floating farm looks prominent in comparison with those owned by locals. The floating farms consist of many rafts. Each raft has many fish cages. Rafts are connected with each others. Three houses are built on these rafts, totaling over 100sq.m.

Mr. Huy, a local man who worked for Chinese, said that there were six Chinese on this floating farm, with nearly 100 fish cages. They also collect groupers from many places, mostly from Cam Ranh, Phu Yen and Phu Quy Island.

“All Chinese here can speak Vietnamese because they have been here for six or seven years. They buy fish, weigh fish and sell fish. I only take care of fish. They export thousand tons of fish to China each year,” Huy said.

Saigon Tiep Thi’s correspondents saw several fishing boats from Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan carried fish to the floating farm to sell fish to Chinese. On the raft, all notice-boards are written in Chinese. At a corner of the raft, two Chinese men named A Ngan and A Keng smoke and observed Vietnamese workers.

A Ngan said that he came from Guangzhou and was specialized in buying and raising groupers. They purchased baby fish to breed and sell to China when black groupers are at least one kilo and yellow groupers are 10 kilos. Fish are transported by sea or road.

“We have been here many years. Some of us have got married with Vietnamese women and developed their own farms,” A Ngan boasted.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, vice head of the Market Control Team No.3, said that there are at least four fish collecting centers and one fish cage farm of Chinese in Cam Ranh, including two in Cam Phuc Bac ward, one in Cam Phu ward and two in Cam Linh ward. However, these establishments are registered under the names of Vietnamese.



However, Mr. Tran Tinh, vice chair of Cam Linh ward, said that there is only one seafood collecting firm, where employs 5-7 Chinese. However, this firm is registered by Vietnamese.

“This firm builds fish cages in the sea without license,” Tinh said. According to the official, the water area where has the fishing farm of Chinese is managed by many forces, such as police, border guard, etc. but they were confused in dealing with fish farms owned by Chinese.

Tinh said that whenever there were storms, the local authorities asked people on floating farms to move into the shore but Chinese did not move because they did not understand Vietnamese thoroughly and they listened to weather forecast from Chinese radios. “We do not know the accurate number of Chinese on fishing farms,” Tinh admitted.

Vice Chair of Cam Ranh city, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, said that there are some foreigners breed fish in the city but not any of them have asked for license to raise fish in Cam Ranh Bay yet. “We will investigate and deal with them under the law,” he added.

SGTT