Poverty prompts Vietnamese fisher in the Thua Thien Hue province to use dangerous electro-fishing
The Hue river winds around mountains, green forests, rice paddies, laid back villages and passes through the ancient capital Hue with its famous citadel, pictures pagodas and temples. The people who live beside the river in Hue are often very poor, wash their clothes in the dirty stream and bathe in the water. Some earn their money by dredging the river bed for sand sell it to cement manufacturers for little money. 27 year old Cuong carries an old 24 V battery on his back. He stands until his hips in the shallow water and dips two bamboo poles into the marsh. Iron sticks stuck at the top of the bamboo poles and when Cuong turns on his humming battery, electric current flows around the two iron sticks. A series of electric pulses of direct current induces muscular contractions in the fish causing it to face and swim toward the source of the electrical pulses until the fish inverts upside-down. All marine life that comes into the electric field is killed immediately; fish that encounters the electric current can get damaged reproductive organs. It can affect the entire food chain: fish eating on marine life, larger fish feeding on smaller fish, birds are feeding on fish. Electro-fishing is banned due to the risk to the fishers. The device on their backs could kill them accidentally and immediately. Authorities close their eyes to small scale fishing, claiming a too low staff budget (unconfirmed source). A catfish floated. Cuong picks up the fish and put it in the shouldered bag. He makes his living with fishing. Cuong will enjoy tonight a sweet-sour fish soup with fresh pineapple and tomato prepared by his wife, and hopes for a better catch tomorrow. He doesn’t have a regular income and relies on the swamp Poverty prompts Vietnamese fisher in the Thua Thien Hue province using life dangerous electro-fishing, endangering not only the eco system but also risking their lives.
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Photo credit: © Alexander Scheible / Alamy / Afripics
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