An Giang (VNA) – Over 7.6 tonnes of fish fry ofvarious kinds and 180,500 breeding fish of indigenous species were releasedinto Vam Nao river, part of Hau river, in Cho Moi district, the Mekong Deltaprovince of An Giang on August 24.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, deputy head of the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Fisheries Preservation andDevelopment, said the activity aims to protect and preserve the diversity ofaquatic species, especially precious ones with high economic value, thus restoringaquatic resources in An Giang and the Mekong Delta.

It also helps raise public awareness of the importance andvalue of natural resources and biodiversity, the role and responsibility of thecommunity for aquatic resource protection, towards managing aquatic resourcesmore effectively and ensuring the sustainable development of fishery and aquaculture.

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agricultureand Rural Development Vo Thi Thanh Van said the event has received donationsworth a total over 570 million VND (24,700 USD) from local residents andorganisations in and outside the province.

According to her, An Giang tapped nearly 91,000 tonnes of aquaticproducts in 2000, but the output dropped to 23,000 tonnes in 2015 and 11,258tonnes in 2017, partly due to the use of electricity and chemicals in fishing whichhas rapidly degraded natural fisheries resources.

Since 2012, the department has partnered with authorities ofdistricts, communes and cities to release fish fry into local rivers, mostlyTien, Hau and Bung Binh Thien rivers in An Phu district. As a result, over 100tonnes of fish fry of different kinds, worth over 4 billion VND, have beenreleased so far.-VNA