Last March, after more than 5 months of almost no aquaculture output, Van Don welcomed the first oyster fishing ships in the area to Cai Rong port. According to the district's report, preliminary statistics of the aquaculture output harvested by Van Don people in March, mainly oyster products, reached over 3,000 tons, equal to 49% compared to the same period last year. This April, Van Don expects to harvest about 7,700 tons of aquaculture output, 2.5 times higher than in March.

Regarding the above parameters, Mr. Ha Van Ninh, an officer of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Van Don district, said: The number of oysters harvested this time is mainly the remaining oysters after storm No. 3 Yagi and the oysters that were newly released by people right after the storm. In April, the weather is favorable for aquaculture exploitation. More importantly, the new oysters released in the sea of ​​Van Don have begun to be harvested, so the district's aquaculture output is expected to be high.

Previously, in September 2024, Typhoon No. 3 Yagi made landfall in Van Don, almost wiping out the people's aquaculture areas. Specifically, 1,200 aquaculture households were damaged, about 32,000 tons of aquatic products about to be harvested were lost, turning the once rich aquaculture sea area into a blank sea. Determined to stick to the sea, Van Don people restored production very quickly. They closed filters, stretched buoys, released new oyster breeds, focused on protection and care after releasing new breeds. At the same time, the authorities at all levels promptly organized the handover of sea areas for people to confidently produce aquaculture, which was also an important support to speed up the recovery of aquaculture production of Van Don people.

Mr. Nguyen Van Manh, a resident of the aquaculture sector in the coastal area of ​​Ban Sen commune, said: On this occasion, Ban Sen and Minh Chau are the two localities that harvest the most oysters in the district. The favorable conditions in the past months of aquaculture production at sea are the suitable weather, sunny, not too low temperature, clean water environment, especially after the storm, the source of seaweed grows and the amount of plankton in the seawater is large, which is an abundant source of food for oysters to grow quickly. Therefore, if previously oysters had to be raised for 7 months or more, now they only need to be raised for 4-5 months to meet the standards of finished oyster products.

Currently, the selling price at the wharf of Van Don oysters is 25,000-28,000 VND/kg, a very high price in many years, 2.5-3 times higher than before storm Yagi (September 2024), thereby bringing profits of over 50% of total revenue for Van Don aquaculture farmers. Mr. Nguyen The Thanh, a aquaculture farmer in the sea of ​​Ha Long commune, Van Don district, said: With this purchase price, we aquaculture farmers are making quite high profits, recovering capital to continue having resources to reinvest and expand production. Mr. Ngo Nam Trung, Director of Trung Nam Aquatic Products Cooperative, the unit that was granted the earliest sea surface in the province, excitedly said: The cooperative's oysters were harvested in March. The quantity was not much because it had been heavily affected by natural disasters, but in return, the profits were quite good, so the members were very excited. From this financial resource and the peace of mind of having been assigned the sea surface, Trung Nam Cooperative has continued to raise many new oysters, covering the nearly 50ha sea surface farming area that the Cooperative has been assigned.

Up to this point, according to the report of Van Don district, the district's marine aquaculture area has reached a higher level than before the Yagi storm in terms of both farming area and number of seed stocking, and the growth rate of oysters has also reached a high level. Specifically, the total marine aquaculture area of ​​Van Don is 3,663 hectares, of which more than 3,500 hectares are for mollusk farming, the remaining area is for raising marine fish, shrimp and other seafood. In particular, many farming households have used very advanced farming materials and technology. This is the basis for Van Don district to expect to harvest high aquaculture output this April and in 2025 and the following years, contributing significantly to the growth of the aquaculture industry in the whole province.

Vietnam China