Nearly 30,000 farmed lobsters have died for unknown reasons in the south-central Vietnamese province of Phu Yen after a tropical storm made its way into the country’s mainland earlier this week.

Some 29,240 lobsters and 1,220 groupers and barramundi raised in 385 farming rafts in Song Cau Town, Phu Yen had died as of Wednesday, Nguyen Van Lam, head of the provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, confirmed a day later.

The damage was estimated at nearly VND2.5 billion (US$106,850).

With appropriate measures, local farmers managed to stop the mass mortality on Thursday, which could be attributed to Storm Mulan, according to the provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine.

The dead lobsters showed no signs of suffering from diseases.

Storm Mulan, the second hitting Vietnam this year, weakened into a tropical depression early on Thursday morning after bringing rough seas and strong waves to the East Vietnam Sea on Wednesday and Thursday.

The impact of the storm might disturb the sea bottom of the farming area and the organic sediments accumulated for a long time from the waste of farming activities, thereby releasing toxic gases and causing an oxygen depletion to the farmed lobsters and fishes.

Phu Yen’s Song Cau Town is home to lobster farms which cover a total area of 1,000 hectares, according to the Vietnam News Agency. 

In the first six months of this year, the town’s total lobster productivity reached around 630 metric tons.

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