Aphids is a type of beetle, most commonly found in Bay Nui, in two districts of Tinh Bien, Tri Ton (An Giang) and the southwestern border region. Aphids reproduce in large numbers at the beginning of the rainy season and last for about a month. This time is usually from April to May of the lunar calendar, depending on whether the year rains sooner or later. In the past, leafhoppers were considered harmful insects for farmers because they often bite young shoots, especially in mango, mulberry, and cashew trees… But recently, people in the border areas have discovered it. how to fry aphids, turn this insect a delicious and nutritious dish. Since then, many people have sought to hunt to process aphids into a unique delicacy, notably the deep-fried mealybugs. The beetle has a beetle-like shape, the size of a thumb, brown cockroach wings, short body, wings, very hard head and legs, but soft and round body. The sage beetle is dry, does not bite like some other insects. The people of this country consider this a “unique” dish, only eating for 1-2 months a year. Therefore, new beetles become a specialty. The way to catch leafhoppers during the day is to pick up cow dung, dry buffalo dung and burn it for smoke to rise to the sky. After a while, the beetles smelled the smell and just flew away, dancing in the smoke. People kept holding brooms to beat the bugs to the ground and then put them in baskets. Hunting beetles at night is simpler and more gentle. The catcher just needs to hang a bright lantern right under the mango tree, where there are beetles gathering on the tree. Just a few minutes later, the light-loving beetles were flying and falling on the ground. The Bay Nui leafhopper is larger than a thumb with a characteristic shape of the beetle, so it looks “difficult to swallow”. However, when they have passed through the hands of the housewives in the mountains, they seem to have completely molted. In the past, beetles were considered the food of the poor. But today, this insect has become a specialty, becoming a favorite dish not to be missed in restaurants and pubs. Just like how to process rice crickets, nymphs or scorpions, hoppers only need to be cleaned by removing wings, legs and gutting, then rinsing with warm water mixed with salt. Then, the cook marinated the beetles with sugar, MSG, pepper, and garlic for about 20 minutes, then caught the pan to fry until crispy. The food stalls and restaurants will have a beautiful presentation, while the dishes of the people in the countryside are simple and rudimentary, but the taste is also crispy, fragrant, fatty, and not inferior. People who know how to make aphids when removing their intestines will not squeeze all their eggs, because the eggs are very delicious and fatty, once eaten, they will remember forever. Crispy fried beetle can be served with raw vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers and salt and pepper with lemon. Just like eating fried scorpions, people who eat aphids for the first time often feel scared because the animal is ugly and the color is not fresh and attractive. The eater just needs to put it in his mouth to bite, the taste will immediately spread, the fat of the meat penetrates into each tooth root, not mixed with any other flavor. Photo: IT. Invite readers to watch the video “Smoked land – Strange dishes of Vinh Phuc people”. Source: VTV3.

Virtual life and death! Recently on many travel forums, the story of a tourist posting photos of starfish dying dry due to being taken ashore to take pictures of “virtual life” in Rach Vem, Phu Quoc has attracted a lot of attention. Most of the comments are outraged by the ignorant actions of some young people that lead to the undue death of the marine species that is the symbol of this sea. Getting starfish ashore has become a “habit” of some tourists. On websites, many accounts constantly share check-in pictures of celebrities who use starfish as virtual living tools without knowing that just a few dozen seconds from the water surface, the starfish will die now. Prof. Dr. Do Cong Thung, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Marine Resources and Environment, said that starfish breathe through the legs and papillae (tiny particles spread all over the body). These tubular legs and papillae are equipped with a very thin layer of tissue, allowing gases to pass easily, whether inhaling oxygen (O2) or exhaling carbon dioxide (CO2), in a process known as is diffuse. Unlike fish with only two gills, the starfish is covered with papillae throughout the body. In other words, their “noses” or “gills” are scattered all over the body surface. When not in water, starfish not only cannot absorb the necessary oxygen. Therefore, they cannot remove carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (CO) from the body. This leads to carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide poisoning and causes death. Most starfish can only hold their breath for less than 30 seconds. Sea stars, sea cucumbers and corals, are naturally born with fragile, fragile creatures. Just a light touch can hurt them. The act of bringing them out of the water is a brutal act of killing this endemic aquatic species. “When taken out of the water, starfish will die within about a minute. The act of catching starfish out of the water to take pictures is very dangerous. It threatens the life of this species. Beaches with starfish need to give warnings, otherwise starfish species will be in danger of scarcity and extinction, losing the value of marine habitat “, Prof.Dr Do Cong Thung said. And Mr. Nguyen Linh Ngoc, a marine conservation expert in Phu Quoc, said that many tourists take starfish out of the water to take pictures, then drop them right away. But when left in the sun on the shore, they die quickly. Starfish have no economic value like sea cucumber or seahorse. Starfish are normal seafood objects. It is not an ecological indicator animal of little scientific value. It is a crustacean that no one eats because it doesn’t have meat. Tourists like mainly the shape it looks like a star. In terms of marine conservation, there is also no regulation prohibiting the exploitation of starfish because this species is not included in the conservation list. But starfish create beautiful scenery for the marine environment, attracting huge visitors. Therefore, the protection of starfish mainly depends on the awareness of visitors as well as reminders of the resorts. An important role in the ecosystem Vietnam has 60 different species of starfish distributed along the coast from North to South, Nha Trang Bay alone has discovered 20 species belonging to 16 genera, 11 families and 4 orders. In Cat Ba, Hai Phong, a starfish beach with an area of ​​up to 5 hectares is home to shallow trench starfish and deep-trench starfish with a high density of about 20 individuals / m2. Starfish food is fish, snails, clams, squid, shrimp and other molluscs. Some starfish species have the ability to turn their stomachs out to cover large foods and then digest themselves outside of their bodies. Vietnam has species such as starfish, blue starfish, pillow starfish, crunchy starfish … Each different species has a certain role, contributing to the general ecosystem, especially creating continuity in the chain. Food that once this food chain is destroyed will have a little or no impact on an entire ecosystem. Mr. Le Chien, Head of Sasa Marine Life Rescue Center, said that touching, holding, touching and catching starfish and sea creatures ashore is extremely offensive. It is being strongly condemned in many countries around the world. When people touch marine organisms, bacteria and chemicals from sunscreen, soap … on their hands can attack directly on their soft tissue. Organisms that have never been exposed and that do not have immune systems to bacteria from humans will be severely affected, even if they may not die immediately. In addition, starfish are only capable of sun exposure for a certain period of time, so bringing them ashore is extremely dangerous. In addition, not all marine life is harmless to humans. If you touch the wrong starfish species, people can be burned, shocked and killed. Not to mention there are many other toxic species such as snail. This job is also playing with their lives and loved ones. Prof.Dr Do Cong Thung said, starfish is a key species (keystone species) in the ecosystem. They are omnivores that feed mainly on scavengers, molluscs, small fish, algae or organic residues. There are more than 1,900 species of starfish around the world, living in all depths of the oceans. They play a very important role in the organic circulation, operating the ecosystem in which they exist. Therefore, the absence or degradation of starfish can lead to the collapse of the marine ecosystem.

Living in a riverside village in Van Giang district (Hung Yen), Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy said, the pretend is a specialty only available in the Red River. Their larvae live in water, only surface once a year to molt and then fly to the surface to lay eggs. Close-up of the child pretending to be outside the Red River. (Photo: Van Thanh). According to Ms. Thuy, when she was a child, many children appeared pretending to be, but suddenly about 20 years they disappeared, causing nostalgia for generations of fishing villages. However, about 3 years ago, pretending to appear many times made the people of the fishing village excited to come out and get together to go out and pretend from 3am. “I pretend to only appear once a year around February to March of the lunar calendar and only live about 2 hours. To get rid of it, most of my family had to stay up all night to see if the next day’s situation would pretend or not. If there is, by about 4 am, the pretense will start to float, and the river will be completely flown by about 6am, ”Ms. Thuy said. The child pretends to be a specialty only available in the Red River, which can be purchased at quite high prices. On the day of pretending to appear, dozens of fishing boats with nets attached to the nose of the boat ran along the river. When it is clear, it is also the end of the fake harvest. Because people were brought up from the riverbank, people gathered and bought them all. At the beginning of the crop, the price was high, about 500,000 VND / kg, every day when it was picked up, it was about 300,000 VND / kg. “On average, my family can salvage about 3-5 kg ​​a day, but there is a record day that my house can salvage nearly 40 kg. Bring it to the market, have not yet sold out all. Because it only appears a few days / month, it is necessary to be able to watch it to avoid the end of the season ”, Ms. Thuy said. Nearly 20 years of “losing track”, about 3 years ago, the pretend started to appear again. As the owner of a famous restaurant in Ngoc Thuy, Long Bien (Hanoi), but Van Thanh still goes out and pretends because this is an insect that has attached to the childhood of riverside children like him. At the same time, he used pretend to cook into dishes to serve guests to eat at his restaurant. In order to catch the pretense, fishermen like Thanh had to prepare from 3am, use a fixed net at the nose of the boat and pick them up because they only appeared from 4-6am and disappeared. According to Thanh, there are not every place where there are pretensions, but only at the confluence of the river where there is a lot of soil for them to nest. “Usually it takes a lot of attention to be able to watch the right day of pretending to molt because only 1-2 times a month. After 2 molting, they lay eggs and then die. Eggs hatch into larvae and return to the river bed waiting for the day to be molested on the surface “, Mr. Thanh said. After being processed, the baby becomes a specialty, with the price up to a million VND / kg. After picking up, Mr. Thanh processed many dishes to serve diners such as pretending to braise fish, pretend soup, pretending to roast honey leaves, and pretending to fry eggs … If he can save a lot, he proceeds to preserve it. separate to be used all year. “From the beginning of the crop up to now I have picked up 2 times, each time about 10-20kg. If selling fresh, it is only about 500,000 VND / kg but processed, each kilo can make 4 plates with the price from 200-300,000 VND / plate. So, each kilo of pretense will cost about 1 million dong ”, Mr. Thanh shared. I pretended to be a phytoplankton, after molting, only lived a few hours on the water. According to the book “Ten thousand questions of why”, I pretend to belong to the set of Ephemeral Wings, a set belonging to a group of Palaeoptera, together with the order of Dragonflies, whose scientific name is Ephemeroptera. They are twofold. After the second time, they only have one pair of wings and then live for only a few hours. The longest lifespan of pretending is not more than a week. The larvae of the child pretend to live in the water, after rolling a few times to become the same. When it becomes a coincidence, its body is soft, light emitting, the two antennae on the head are like a dagger, at the end of the abdomen grows 3 tail feathers. In the evening the children pretend to gather, fly over the water to perform mating. After the sex is finished, pretend the female spawns the eggs in the water. The vast majority of them to the next day “deadlock”.

Jellyfish season is sleepless nights of the coastal residents of Thinh Long. The time to start harvesting jellyfish of the fishermen here starts from 1am. Jellyfish are molluscs, living in seawater. The jellyfish are caught offshore from 6 to 12 nautical miles. Jellyfish harvest season lasts 3 months, from January to the end of March of lunar calendar. Depending on the weather that jellyfish are more or less. This year, up to 20 days a month, fishermen can exploit jellyfish. Every evening, ships often catch 3,000-4,000 jellyfish. Jellyfish exploitation brings high income but hard work, many people do not have the strength to do it. Those who are not healthy do other jobs, while those who are healthy do this profession with very high income. The people here are also from jellyfish to get rich and develop their economy. According to VTC16, the preliminary processing factory of Mr. Ninh Van Chinh is one of the largest jellyfish preliminary processing factories in Thinh Long. During the day when there are many jellyfish, Mr. Chinh’s workshop operates from late at night until 18:00 the next day. Jellyfish after being preliminarily processed will be put in a centrifuge to squeeze the water, leaving only the meat. The jellyfish meat is soaked in salty brine to be freshly cooked before deep processing. Soaking jellyfish is like pickling salt, soaking jellyfish in salt water reaches 24 degrees, within 1 week to 10 days to ensure the ripeness of the jellyfish, delicious, fishy, ​​and crispy. Working as a preliminary processing jellyfish in Thinh Long quite a lot of time, Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan said that each time she made jellyfish preliminary, she was paid 500,000 VND. She also said that the work is quite hard, but because she depends on her family, she chose this job. “When I work at night, I can still take care of my children during the day. As for the day, many people are too busy to go.” Previously, jellyfish were only pickled to become salty jellyfish and then sold in domestic and foreign markets. However, in recent years, in order to increase the value of jellyfish, production establishments have upgraded and processed deeply into instant jellyfish. Jellyfish is rich in nutrients, rich in protein, newspaper, calcium, iron and other vitamins, cool, easy to eat. Currently, 1 year, 31 milk processing establishments across Nam Dinh can supply to domestic and foreign markets about 500 tons of jellyfish. (According to Business and Marketing)

Towards the end of this century, organisms living on the ocean floor faced increasing dangers from ocean warming. (Photo: thiennhien.net) According to climate warming projections, the number of species has decreased in the equator and increased in the subtropics since the 1950s. This is the general state of all 48,661 species and they are divided into sub-species. seabed (benthic) and in open water (floating fish area), fish, molluscs and crustaceans. Results from a study led by the University of Auckland (New Zealand) show that open water marine species in the Northern Hemisphere tend to move more towards the North Pole than benthic species. Meanwhile, species in the southern hemisphere do not have a similar wave of movement. The reason is that the warming ocean in the Northern Hemisphere is more pronounced than the Southern Hemisphere. In the past, the tropics were always considered to be stable and have an ideal temperature for reproduction because so many species of organisms appear there. Now the defined tropics are not so stable and are becoming too hot for many species. This study is the result of doctoral work by lead author Chhaya Chaudhary at the University of Auckland and builds on a series of studies in a joint research group that delineates documents and data on taxonomy groups. Specifically, these include crustaceans, fish and worms. The data is taken from the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), a free accessible online world database established by Professor Mark Costello of the University as part of the marine biology investigation, a global marine exploration program from 2000 to 2010. Recorded information about the time and location of species was compiled into latitude ranges and a statistical model was used. Use to calculate variables in sampling. Last year, Professor Costello co-authored a study that found that although marine biodiversity escalated and peaked at the equator during the last ice age 20,000 years ago, it was pulled flat before the status quo. global warming in the industrial era. This study uses fossil records of marine plankton buried in deep-sea sediments to track changes in species diversity over thousands of years. The latest research on a decade scale shows that this flat drag has continued over the past century, and that the number of species is now decreasing at the equator. This research, and other work underway, shows that the number of marine species declines when the average annual seawater temperature is above 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (varies with different species. ). As one of the lead authors of the current International Commission on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report, Professor Costello argues that these findings are of great significance. “Our work shows that man-made climate change affects marine biodiversity on a global scale across all species. Climate change is already here for us and is happening at an ever-increasing rate. We can predict general trends in species diversity, but due to the complexity of ecological interactions, it is currently unclear how rich marine life and fisheries will be. how to change according to climate change ”, said Professor Costello. According to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the rate of climate change in the depths of the world’s oceans could be seven times higher than current levels in the second half of this century even if greenhouse gas emissions have been significantly reduced. Different global warming at different depths has a major impact on the wildlife of the oceans, causing disconnections as species that rely on each other for survival are forced to move. Professor Anthony Richardson of the University of Queensland and CSIRO, who is also one of the 10 authors of the study, pointed out: “What really worries us is that when we move down deep in the ocean, the climate velocity moves downwards. transfer at different speeds ”. This can create a disconnection with species that depend on organic organisms of different layers. Tuna, for example, live in the middle layer with a depth of 200 – 1000 m, but they need plankton near the sea surface. Professor Richardson emphasized that the results of the study are of concern, with climatic speeds varying depending on the depth of the ocean and the tendency for species to move to be uneven. This may mean marine protected areas established to protect species or habitats may no longer work as species move out of protected areas into unprotected areas.

In the water season, or when the flood overflows, even though the herbaceous plants have been drifted away, the industrious still cling, rising from the mud. In the past, gardening people pulled this tree to eat through hunger. Then so, the days passed gradually, industrious became the specialty vegetable dish of the people of the South, with high economic value. Currently, these vegetables bring to urban areas cost a few tens of thousands of dong to hundreds of thousands dong a kilogram and sometimes still “out of stock”.

Vegetable spinach.

Processing the industrious vegetables in the Mekong Delta style is very simple. Raw edible spinach is considered to be the best, retaining its nutrients when dotted with braised fish and braised fish juice. The crunchy, supple stalks combine with the richness of the dipping sauce to create a rustic but delicious dish! Or when there is no food at home, pick up a bunch of spinach, wash them, cut them into pieces, boil them with boiling water, pick them up with soybean sauce, soya sauce, and soy sauce all run out of the bottom of the pot of white rice. A little more picky can be salty. Salted and sour salted islet (for a few days), often served with main dishes such as braised meat, fried fish … Stir-fried island with shrimp, meat, heart is the favorite drink of gentlemen. .

Cu Neo also appears in hot pot dishes of the Southern people. Especially hot pot sauce, fish sauce warehouse, if there is a lack of industrious (or tai Tuong vegetables), even a multitude of other raw vegetables will feel lacking something. Not only hot pot sauce but also in the sour soup pot of Western people, industrious to help increase the taste, strange taste. Because in that fragile amaranth, there is a mild acrid taste, a light sweet taste and a salty taste of alluvial flavor.

After sunset in Jaffna, Anthony Vigrado dived into the waters of Palk Bay to catch sea cucumbers – a prickly skin creature that has grown in value and has been his main source of income for the past 12 years.

But after 10 hours of searching, what he got is a fraction of what he used to be. The reason is that sea cucumbers have been extensively exploited in the northern coasts of Sri Lanka and southern India.

Treasures of the sea

“Illegal fishermen are fishing illegally in the places where we often dive for sea cucumbers. We are losing income and a livelihood for them, ”said the 31-year-old fisherman.

Sea cucumbers are echinoderms with a soft, tubular body resembling a vegetable of the same name. Photo: Guardian.

Sea cucumbers are echinoderms with a soft, tubular body resembling a vegetable of the same name. They are an unusual animal but play an important role in the marine ecosystem. When they eat debris in sediments, they regenerate nutrients and excrete nitrogen, ammonia and calcium carbonate – components that make up coral reefs. Sea cucumber also helps slow ocean acidification due to human activity.

The demand for sea cucumbers is huge in China and Southeast Asian countries, where they are processed into delicious dishes and used in traditional remedies. Dried sea cucumber is called calche-de-mer or trepang. They are also considered by many, especially China, an aphrodisiac.

This has made the sea cucumber trade become “super profitable”. Therefore, this animal is in danger of extinction. In the 1980s, sea cucumber was priced below 70 USD / kg, now the price has increased to more than 270 USD / kg. The rare species cost up to nearly 3,500 USD / kg.

Over the years, sea cucumbers in Palk Bay and Mannar Bay are overfished. For the most expensive species, the number of individuals has dropped by more than 60% globally.

Fishermen harvested sea cucumbers caught on Mannar Bay. Photo: Guardian.

Now, this tiny tropical island has become a hotspot for smuggling and illegal sea cucumber fishing. Like Vigrado, more than 10,000 fishing families living along Sri Lanka’s north coast are anxious about their livelihoods.

Chamari Dissanayake, Senior Lecturer in Zoology at Sri Jayewardenepura University in Sri Lanka, said: “The number of sea cucumbers is plummeting due to overfishing. It affects the biodiversity and the livelihoods of coastal fishermen who have long depended on this profession ”.

Vigrado said many illegal fishing boats damaged the facilities and equipment of local fishermen to catch sea cucumbers, causing some people to commit suicide because they could not pay the debt.

“They are grabbing everything”

AM Stanny Lambert, a 31-year-old fisherman from Vankalai in Mannar, said he was sad and angry at these crimes.

“It was unethical and we were stuck, because they were doing everything in front of us,” he said. Lambert and his father have been licensed to fish for 11 years and are the breadwinner of the family.

Most reported offenses take advantage of different regulations from neighboring countries. While Sri Lanka issued fishing permits and permits the export of sea cucumbers, India has completely banned all trade in these animals since 2001.

As a result, sea cucumbers are illegally caught in India and smuggled into Sri Lanka, where they are legally exported to Southeast Asia, or exported from India under fake labels.

Marine animal protection forces in Lakshadweep Islands, India seized 486 sea cucumbers died in March 2021. Photo: Lakshadweep Forest Management Board.

In August 2020, three men were caught smuggling nearly 1,000 kg of sea cucumber from Tamil Nadu in India to Sri Lanka via Mannar Bay. The Indian Coast Guard priced these sea cucumbers to nearly $ 700,000 in the international market. A similar case was reported in March 2021.

Teale Phelps Bondaroff, research director at OceansAsia, an organization that recently mapped sea cucumber arrests and seizures in the two countries, said: “If you have a legitimate market near a market, illegal, legal markets will become huge “fish wash” dens.

Exhausted

For many years, the Sri Lankan and Indian authorities have worked to combat this type of marine crime. But the growing number of arrests shows that illegal trade is spreading to areas that have never been affected before.

Nowadays, as the value of animals is increasing, exploitation is also becoming more common. Great demand for sea cucumbers has led to deadly violence in Mexico, related to yakuza criminal organizations in Japan, and smuggling between Tanzania and Zanzibar.

According to OceansAsia, the network of organized sea cucumber fishing and smuggling criminals is spreading from the Palk Bay and Mannar Bay into untapped areas of the Lakshadweep alliance, an archipelago off the west coast. South India.

Wild island of Suheli in Lakshadweep. Photo: Guardian.

In the largest recorded arrest, disclosure from local fishermen in February 2020 helped authorities find 1,716 sea cucumbers worth nearly $ 580,000 hidden in nearby coral reefs. Suheli deserted island.

“Resource depletion may be the main reason these people are looking for new locations. Lakshadweep is still pristine, which may be why merchants moved there, ”said Sajan John, head of the Marine Projects and Policy Management Unit at Wildlife Trust of India.

Realizing the seriousness of the crime of selling sea cucumbers, the local government reacted strongly. In February 2020, the world’s first sea cucumbers conservation area was established in Lakshadweep, anti-theft bases were established across the islands and Lakshadweep Sea cucumber Protection Task Force was established. established with the help of the Central Bureau of Investigation of India.

A batch of 416 dead sea cucumbers was seized on a deserted island off Perumal in Lakshadweep in March 2021. Photo: Lakshadweep Forest Management Board.

“The people of Lakshadweep understand the importance of sea cucumber because their livelihood depends on fishing. When sea cucumbers are affected, other fisheries are also affected, ”said Sivakumar Kuppusamy, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Wildlife.

But as the majority of illegally-caught and trafficked sea cucumbers continue to be smuggled into Sri Lanka, Kuppusamy agrees that while it is important to stop this illegal supply chain, educate the fighters. Illegally catching sea cucumbers correctly appreciates the importance of this animal is also important to protect them.

“We have to convince them of the role of sea cucumber in the ecosystem. Without sea cucumbers, they are jeopardizing the sea, ”he said. “That’s when they begin to realize that their livelihoods and their children’s futures will be affected.”

“Break that illegal supply chain and convince the fishermen – we have to do both. If not, this business will continue to grow ”.

The strange movement of a flying snake Some snakes are able to climb trees and “fly” from branch to branch with deliberate jumps. Scientists are investigating what makes them do that.