Fishermen in the central Vietnamese province of Khánh Hoà off the coast of Nha Trang City, are catching juvenile ornate or flower spiny lobsters (Panulitus ornatus) and selling them to farmers for growing on or fattening. The young crustaceans fetch around VND 250,000 (USD 11, EUR 10) a kilo.
After fattening, the lobsters are mainly exported, live, to China.
Ornate or flower spiny lobsters are brightly colored, hence the names, and are much sought after as centerpieces for celebratory banquets. (The Chinese will pay up to USD 200 [EUR 180] per kilo for the lobsters shell-on.)
The juvenile lobsters are kept in sea cages in shallow waters (not deeper than a few meters) where they grow until they reach the desired size –from a pound to a kilo, sometimes bigger. They are fed mostly on green shell mussels.
Lobster farming is a growing industry in Vietnam and under a plan from the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), it may become a key economic activity in the central region of the country. The plan envisages increasing the farming area to around one million cubic meters and the output to 1,940 metric tons (tonnes) by 2020.
The industry has been expanding, especially in south-central provinces, for more than 15 years, according to the online version of Vietnam News. In Khánh Hoà Province, more than 23,300 lobster cages, many handmade by fishermen from wood, are used for fattening juveniles each year.
This accounts for 40 percent of the country’s total as recorded by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
However, the juveniles caught from the sea around the coast off Nha Trang, meet only 30 percent of the farmers’ needs and they have to buy in additional juveniles from other provinces, such as Binh Dinh and Phu Yen to the north of the city.
The waters off Vĩnh Lương village in Khánh Hoà’s Nha Trang City have optimum conditions for lobsters to live and reproduce. They are close to quiet waters in straits and lagoons, which they need in order to be able to breed, as the species is very sensitive.
Vĩnh Lương was one of Vietnam’s first fishing villages where young lobsters were caught and 40 percent of fishermen in the village now earn their livelihoods from catching them.
Vietnam News interviewed Nguyễn Văn Nam, 37, who catches juvenile lobsters 400 meters offshore. He earns from VND 700,000 to 800,000 (USD 31 to 36, EUR 28 to 32) up to VND 5 million (USD 224, EUR 200) a night, and is planning to rebuild his dilapidated house with his earnings.
He switched to catching young lobsters in 2013 after fishing offshore for more than 10 years and struggling to earn a living. Within a year he was able to repay a VND 100 million (USD 4,486, EUR 4,003) loan he had taken out to buy tools for catching the lobsters.
