Fishermen “pick up money” on coral reefs
At 4 p.m., the tide recedes rapidly revealing coral reefs stretching over 1km. That was the time when
In the summer, when the tide recedes to reveal the reefs near the shore, the women of Tam Hai island commune in Quang Nam go to the sea to pick cilantro to earn extra income.
The rocky beach located on the coast of Tam Hai island commune (Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province) is about 10 hectares wide, submerged under water at high tide and exposed when the water recedes.
Veggies (a type of seaweed that grows on rocks, used to make xuxa – a dish similar to jelly, that has a cooling effect in the summer) is covered on the rocks.
Every day, dozens of local people come here to exploit this sea vegetable, sell it to households who work as cooks or sell it to traders who take it to many places for consumption.
From June to July, the tide usually recedes in the evening. At exactly 15:00, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hai (67 years old, Tam Hai commune) wearing a hat, holding a chisel and a knife bent at one end, went to each stone with rhubarb clinging to it to shave.
The rocky beach has many shells, oysters and sharp rocks, so the women who make a living here must wear gloves, socks and protective shoes.
According to Ms. Hai, celandine grows all year round, but the exploitation depends on the water. Every month, from the 9th to the 15th and the 29th to the 3rd day of the lunar calendar, the tide goes down to the exposed rocky beach. The remaining days, the water in this area is nearly 2m deep, unexploited.
In order to pick the herbs under the sea water, each person has to drag a large plastic bowl and then groping slowly to find the coriander dust clinging to the rocks. The type of seaweed that people call this vegetable is dark yellow, so it is difficult to see under the sea.
“You have to go slow to find the vegetables, if the vegetables are only half-grown, use your hands to pull them, and if you stick to the rock, you have to use a chisel or a knife to scrape the vegetables off the stone,” said Ms. Hai.
After harvesting, the rhubarb is cleaned, garbage is removed, and coral stones are still attached to the root. The vegetables are then dried before being sold.
On average, every day, shaving vegetables from 3pm to 6pm, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong (57 years old, Tam Hai commune) collects about one kilogram of dried vegetables, earning 350,000 VND.
Ms. Hong said that the harvest season of the vegetable is most active around the beginning of February of the lunar calendar, and now the vegetable season is almost out of season.
In addition to exploiting spinach, people in the Tam Hai island commune can also exploit sea products all year round such as picking seaweed, jam, clams, crabs… in any season, working all year round without worrying about unemployment.
“If we say we get rich, we don’t have enough but we have enough to eat and clothe, take care of our children’s education, we can do it. The people of the island commune all year round to make a living by the sea, the healthy young men exploit offshore, Women and the elderly depend on sea vegetables for their livelihood”, Mrs. Hong smiled kindly.
The profession of picking vegetables makes the women’s hands callous with the cut of oyster shells, their feet become pale and sore because of sea water. However, every day the women of the island commune go home laughing and joking. Because the little money earned after each day of hard work will help them make ends meet while waiting for the fishing boats of their husband and children to dock.
It is known that the vegetables will be bought by local people who cook the xa Xa for processing, cooked until they are crushed, using a filter cloth to get the water and then put into the mold to produce the finished product. When eating, each piece of Xu Xa is chopped, adding sugar, ginger, ice, etc. This is a familiar dish of many Quang Nam people to help cool off in the summer.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)
