Farmers harvest clams on the Mekong River. Commercially bred clams in Tien Giang’s Go Cong Dong District have died en masse for reasons yet to be determined.

Authorities in Tien Giang Province’s Go Cong Dong District are trying to find what is wiping out commercial clam stocks costing local breeders millions of US dollars.

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Pham Van Kiet, deputy chairman of the Tan Thanh Commune, the leading clam breeding commune in Go Cong Dong District, said most of the clams bred commercially in Cay Bang, Cau Mong and Tan Phu hamlets were dead.

Farmers paid little attention when some clams began to die early this month, as they thought it was normal, but they raised the alarm a few days ago when clams started dying en masse, Kiet said.

In Tan Thanh Commune, about 900ha of clams being farmed for consumption have been wiped out at a rate of 40-80 per cent, while 300ha used for breeding baby clams suffered 20 per cent losses.

The Tan Thanh Commune People’s Committee valued clam breeders’ losses at VND230 billion (US$12 million).

A top breeder from Tan Thanh Commune, Vo Van Manh, who has lost most of his 17ha of clams worth VND2 billion ($120,000), blamed prolonged hot weather and recent high water salinity for the deaths.

Huynh Thi To, deputy chairwoman of the Go Cong Dong District People’s Committee, last Saturday said her committee has instructed relevant agencies to investigate the cause.

Officials from the Research Institute for Aquaculture No 2 have taken samples of dead clams to find the cause, To said.

“With the current weather conditions, the clams will continue to die,” Manh said, adding that clam breeding sites in other Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces like Ben Tre and Tra Vinh would face similar situations if nothing was done to prevent it.

Le Van Quang, deputy chairman of the Rang Dong Clam Co-operative in Ben Tre Province’s Binh Dai District, said there were some early signs that his co-operative could also be effected.

Some clams had started to die so the co-operative was now urgently harvesting mature clams to avoid losses, Quang said.

Nguyen Van Dao, director of the Tien Giang Province-based Go Dang Seacooking Company, which is one of the country’s leading clam exporters, said the massive clam deaths could make it hard to fill clam export contracts, causing concerns for exporters.

Source: Vietnam News