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Trash is quite prevalent in areas like Rooster Island and the Maze area – places where many tourist boats gather to take visitors on day trips and overnight stays in the bay. There are all kinds of trash, but mainly small styrofoam buoys.
According to the crew members on the tourist boats, this could be because locals cultivate oysters but instead of bringing them ashore after harvesting, they harvest them directly at sea and leave them drifting there.
There were all kinds of trash, but mostly small styrofoam floats.
Furthermore, these are also fragments of broken buoys remaining from a massive amount of styrofoam buoys that burst open on the sea surface for many months from Ha Long to Cam Pha and Van Don, due to the replacement of styrofoam buoys by aquaculture rafts and the handling of illegal aquaculture cages in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay.
Although local authorities and relevant agencies have largely recovered the styrofoam buoys drifting at sea, a small amount remains trapped in rocky crevices and mangrove forests, and occasionally, heavy rains or high tides cause them to be carried back out to sea.
Processing this type of waste will take a lot of time and effort.
During the "crisis" of styrofoam buoys in Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay in April-May 2023, in one week alone, Ha Long City collected approximately 100,000 styrofoam buoys; not including Cam Pha City and Van Don District.
