The Hai Duong Province Police Department has paid VND650 million (US$31,250) in damages to fishermen in Ho Chi Minh in relation to the seizure of an octopus shipment, and are identifying specific individuals who will have to bear the payment. Colonel Cao Ngoc Lan, deputy director of the department, told Tuoi Tre on Wednesday afternoon that after reaching an agreement on the amount of compensation, the department borrowed the money from an acquaintance, who is a native of Hai Duong but is living in HCMC, to make the payment. The department sympathized with the suffering of the affected fishermen, so it decided to borrow money to make the payment as soon as possible, Lan said.   The money will be returned to the lender after the department identifies who must be held responsible for the damage to two tons of octopus seized by provincial environmental police from of tens of fishermen of HCMC’s Can Gio District on May 27, the official said. Colonel Pham Van Loan, another deputy director of the department, said that the department’s Party Committee is working with the environmental police division and will punish wrongdoers.Who will have to pay? “We will certainly not use our budget to cover the compensation, since under current regulations, the State budget must not be used to pay for damage in a case like this,” Loan said. He stressed that “those who committed wrongdoings that caused the damage to the seafood must be responsible for paying the compensation.” Initially, the fishermen claimed total damages of VND755 million, including the value of goods and their travel expenses related to the case. But after police asked for a reduction, the two sides finally agreed to VND650 million. The representative of the fishermen received the damages at 9 pm Tuesday. As previously reported, the case began at 11 pm on May 27, when an environmental police unit seized a truck carrying two tons of octopus because the transporter had no quarantine certificate for the goods. They then escorted the truck to the parking lot of a local company for handling. Meanwhile, the goods’ owners argued that under Circular 32/2012 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, seafood is not subject to quarantine if it is not transported out of an area with an epidemic. In this case, as HCMC is not an epidemic area, it was unreasonable for police to demand that they obtain a quarantine certificate for the octopus, the fishermen said. Therefore, the next morning, June 28, dozens of fishermen from Can Gio flew to Hai Duong to complain to police that they had seized the goods unlawfully. When the police agreed to release the vehicle and the goods later the same day, most of the octopus had already been spoiled.