Raking for shellfish is one of the traditional occupations of fishermen in Dat Mui Ca Mau to exploit blood cockle - a bivalve mollusks with high economic value - live in the alluvial ground of Ca Mau Cape.
 

People are raking shells at alluvial ground of Dat Mui. Photo: Nguyen Thanh Dung.

The alluvial ground of Ca Mau Cape is about 34km length, with more than 10,000ha, located mainly in Ngoc Hien district. The coastal is formed by two different tidal regimes of the East Sea and the West Sea, as well as the flow of two major rivers, Bay Hap and Cua Lon. At low tide, Coastal stretches to the sea about 4 km from mainland. The Coastal mangroves ecosystem plays an important role in ecological balance, spawning ground of marine animals and coastal protection forest, contributing significantly to natural disaster mitigation, etc.

The alluvial ground of Ca Mau Cape has long been dubbed “spawning grounds”, is home to many species of aquatic and marine life. Among them, the most common is blood cockle. However, to exploit this bivalve mollusks, Dat Mui Ca Mau fishermen formed the traditional shellfish raking.
 

The alluvial ground of Ca Mau Cape has muddy thick layer, so people have to sit on the board to move in the shellfish raking.

In order to raking for shellfish, Dat Mui fishermen have to wait until the tide is down, Coastal gradually appeared. Under the muddy layer, alluvial land of coastal are blood cockle that buried themselves in shelter. However, due to thick mud, dirt, when people go to exploit cockles will be deep sinking, very difficult to move. Therefore, to easily move on the thick, muddy sand of Coastal, Ca Mau people use thin boards (boards as light as possible), about 3 inches width, 2 to 2.5 meters length. On the thin boards it was a barrel that made to contain the shell, as well as the seat while raking. During the movement, the fishermen just used the beams to swim, to fast, while using the legs to push. The board is usually not sinking deep, just slip on the mud. Where find blood cockles appear or see “holes” (where blood cockles buried themselves hidden usually have a small water), the person who raking for shells will catch them by hands.

Fishermen usually only catch large blood cockles, not destroy aquatic resources. The product is more or less depending on the density, reserves cockles on coastal.

Shell raking activities of fishermen in Dat Mui area approved by People's Committee of Ca Mau province is one of 18 priority tourist products developed in Dat Mui in 2015-2020.