Ca Mau land has long been famous for the traditional fish farming. As usual, when the field began to run out of water, the fish retreated to shelter, the farmers began to slap to harvest the fish. This is a method of harvesting fish is quite common and has a long tradition of Ca Mau farmers.
Down to bailing shelter. Photo: Huynh Lam.
Previously, most Ca Mau farmers used shoulder buckets to bail but it took a lot of time, effort and not high efficiency. The big shelters, Ca Mau farmers have to use 2 to 3 shoulder buckets to bail but it took 2 - 3 days to be exhausted. Later, when technical science developed, Ca Mau farmers gradually lost their shoulder buckets and changed to using machines to bail. This way, the pumping time and slurry dry faster, releasing a significant portion of human labor.
Before down to bailing shelter, the owner must cover the throat to prevent water; fence posts throat for fishes not to be out; spit and brush the grass around the shelter to easily bail water and catch fishes. Most of farmers in Ca Mau have many “mouths” shelters. A “mouth” has a “giang” (a pond, a part of shelter), each “giang” has a width of 4 to 10 meters, length from 20 to 40 meters. Therefore, in order to bail dry and catch fish during the day the owner down the pump and proceed to pump water from the previous afternoon. Early morning the next day shelters began to dry water and catch fishes.
During pumping water, in the pump fan is attached loft (frame shield) does not allow the fish to cut the rotor blade, dead and damaged fish. Smaller fish such as mackerel, perch, small snakehead, etc. can also get into this bumper and get blown up by the suction machine (where the tap is pumped upwards). However, to harvest the fishes are pumped upwards, the owner often arranged several children to catch fish.
Catch fish in shelters.
After bailing shelters is to catch fish. The fish after catching is urgently washed to avoid fish being drowned. At the same time, the owner proceeds to classify weighing fish (fish weight) to sell to traders; drifted fish (fish not enough weight) drop back to breeding or cooking, drying.
Products obtained when bailing shelters in Ca Mau are mainly snakehead fish, thick fish, catfish, perch, mullet, fish, snake, turtle, etc. Snakehead fishes are mainly used to sell fresh fish to traders. Particularly, the snakeskin gourami is dried and the snakeskin is cooked sauce.
Normally, every time when bailing shelters, the neighbors will help to catch the fishes that Ca Mau people call “catch fish for time”. Young men carry the machine, catch fish, carry fish, wash fish, weigh fish; women cook rice, cook fish, salted fish, dried fish. When others bailing shelters, they will go to work again. After catching the fish, the fish catcher is usually given for 5 to 10 kilo of fish and caviar to eat; fish head, intestine fish to cook oil, etc. by owner.
The shelter fishes after catching are put up for rinsing and sorting. Photo: Huynh Lam.
After catching the fish, if the shelter is more muddy and dried up, the owner often uses a slurry machine to “dredge” (dredge, muddy clean the bottom of the pond).
Bailing shelters to harvest of fish is one of the hard work of farming fish in Ca Mau. The plumber often has to carry machinery, pipes that go hundreds of meters to the place where they need to bail; the men who cleansed the grass, spit it, spent hours under the cold water; fishermen, his face is mottled with dust, muddy, may suffer from spikes piercing fish pain; the men who carrying fish, washing the fish are always buckling the burden; fishermen must sit in one place for almost a day to get things done, etc. By the end of the day, almost all the people who participated are very tired. Therefore, the owners often choose the biggest snake fish, the best to cook coconut milk porridge, sour soup; roach fish, thick fish is grilled; mackerel fish is cooked sauce, etc. to nourish slumberers and brothers, neighbors who helped him.