In the past two months, people who collect seaweed in Nui Thanh district have collected from a few hundred thousand to half a million per day.
Hundreds of people in Tam Hiep, Tam Hoa communes, Nui Thanh town (Nui Thanh district) live by harvesting seaweed. The Truong Giang River flows through the area and then empties into the sea to form brackish water, suitable for yellow jelly plants to grow.
Since the sun has not yet risen, Mr. Huynh Van Quan (48 years old, Tam Hiep commune) carries a rake made of a 2 m long piece of bamboo, with a bamboo rake blade and a net attached to the bottom. He and a man and a woman got on a boat and rowed to the middle of the river, looking for a place where the water was about 50 cm deep to practice.
The two men waded through the water and pushed the rake to the bottom of the river to push forward and back for about 5 minutes. The net bag full of seaweed was put on the boat, the woman sitting on it collected garbage, mud mixed inside out of the seaweed.
The three-man job was repeated until 8 a.m. When the boats are full, they arrive ashore, wash them, put them in sacks and transport them for consumption.
Mr. Quan said that fishing starts from February and ends in May every year. Algae live at the bottom of brackish water, they adapt to the mud to reproduce and develop. “For the past 10 years, this year has been a good seaweed season. On average 3 hours of work, each person rakes more than 100 kg of fresh seaweed”, Mr. Quan said.
According to local people, in the past, seaweed was taken by people to use as fish food, some used to be processed into dishes. However, in recent years, this item has been bought by many people, so it has a price and people go to exploit and sell it. “Since Tet, people in the village have taken advantage of the river to earn extra income, a few hundred thousand, a lot of people collect millions of money every day,” Mr. Quan said.
Also exploiting seaweed, but Mrs. Phan Thi Lan (52 years old, Tam Hiep commune) does not have a boat, so she wades into the river. She watched the tide go down, looked for water up to her knees, and brought a basin and basket to pick up seaweed.
Finding and picking up seaweed in the water is quite simple, it doesn’t cost money to invest, but it has a good income, so many families invite 3 to 4 people to go with them. However, this job is very hard, the tide usually goes down at dawn, so you have to go to the river early in the morning.
“Every day I can only work for about 2 to 3 hours. On average, each person picks up 50 kg”, she said and shared that although it is easy to earn money, she has to be immersed in the water continuously.
According to Ms. Lan, people often divide into groups to go together, because the river bed is shallow and deep.
The seaweed is gathered ashore and washed, then put in sacks and transported home to dry or sold to traders waiting on the riverbank. They are often processed into salads, jelly…
