Dong Nai releases one million fish into Tri An Lake
By Van Nam - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Dong Nai Province government will release one million breed fishes into Tri An Lake in Vinh Cuu District at 8 a.m. on Saturday in an act to raise local awareness of protecting the aquaculture resources of this huge lake.
“The release of breed fishes, which include carps, amurs and chubs, will be selected as an annual event to raise the awareness of some 800 families living around the lake in protecting the lake’s aquaculture resources,” Tran Van Mui, director of the Vinh Cuu Nature Reserve and Historical Relics Center as the managing unit of the lake, told the Daily on Wednesday.
The event will take place on the traditional day of seeing the Kitchen God off to heaven by a carp, an annual custom practiced by Vietnamese seven days before Lunar New Year.
Mui said the release of another million fish into the lake would take place in July and total expenditure for the two events was some VND700 million, mostly mobilized from local fishermen.
According to the center, Tri An Lake as the reservoir for the hydropower plant of the same name has a total area of 32,400 hectares and contains three billion cubic meters of water. The lake supplies fresh water for millions of people in Bien Hoa City in Dong Nai Province and HCMC.
In recent years, unconscious fish catching and fish breeding on rafts have had bad effects on the landscape and natural resources of the lake.