Vietnamese authorities have adopted several measures to address the issues related to the massive fish death along the central coast of the country that took place a month ago.
First of all, official investigations were conducted as there were concerns about the possible link of the event to alleged toxic discharges from a steel complex built by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics (TFP), which the firm involved disregarded alleging lack of evidence.
Now they have issued a decree including guidelines for destroying seafood washed ashore or caught within 20 nautical miles off the central coast of the country and a processing and trade ban of the dead fish from the affected area, VOA reported.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also requested a halt to fish farming in cages and commercial facilities in these coastal central provinces until the cause is determined.
The Government is also considering strict sanctions to polluters, transparent information about the incident and its impact, as well as actions to help the fishing, seafood processing and tourism industries recover, VietNamNet Bridge informed.
Besides, local authorities in the affected areas have been urged to make statistics over the losses that fishermen suffered due to the fish deaths and to submit them to the Prime Minister for timely Government’s assistance.
The Ministry of Science and Technology also announced that a national scientific council was established to examine the incident and that almost 100 experts from more than 30 research institutes and universities nationwide joined to analyze it.
According to the ministry, the initial findings showed that these deaths were not related to disease, oil leaks, thermal shocks or other effects caused by earthquakes but there were concerns that biological and chemical issues had caused the disaster.
Further action includes recommendations for farmers to move their fish cages farther from the shore to ensure the bottom of the cages are at least one metre above the seabed, improve pond sanitation, use probiotics to improve water quality, limit pumping new seawater while the cause of the mass fish deaths has not been brought to light.
They are also asked to limit feeding their fish with fresh feed to minimize environmental pollution but use processed feed with high protein and vitamin C to enhance the disease resistance of their fish.
In case farmers pump new seawater into their fish farms, they should take water on the surface and let it in storage facilities before the water is released into their farms. Before supplying new water for their farms, they should drop some fish and shrimp in it to see if there is something wrong with the water.
To further clarify these deaths, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Environment Administration Hoang Van Thuc said that a group of overseas experts arrived at Vung Ang Economic Zone in central Ha Tinh Province to independently assess waste treatment of firms that release waste into sea.
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