Vietnam’s Fishy Fish Deaths: A Bouillabaisse Of Politics, PR And Business

This picture taken on April 20, 2016 shows a man walking among dead fish lying on a beach in Quang Trach district in the central coastal province of Quang Binh. Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa was under attack in Vietnam’s normally staid state-media on April 25 over allegations of industrial pollution leaching from a multi-billion dollar steel mill that may have caused mysterious mass fish deaths. (AFP / STR /Getty Images)

FORBES | May 17, 2016

Tons of dead fish washing up on the shores of central Vietnam, the competing interests of industrial development and nascent environmental awareness, Facebook and an exercise in maybe how not to do public relations. It has been an interesting month or so in Vietnam, and while these disparate elements might seem odd to be grouped together at first glance, stay with me.

It began in early April, when thousands of dead fish began washing up on the shores of central and northern-central Vietnam. Some estimates put the number of dead fish at more than 100 tons. There was lots of speculation about the cause of the mass fish deaths, from undersea earthquakes to algal blooms, although the most likely culprit was thought to be some kind of discharge of toxic chemicals by nearby industrial plants.

Various government agencies swung into action testing fish and water samples, and international assistance was requested to determine a cause. Perhaps not surprisingly, consumption of seafood has plummeted, along with market prices, leaving entire communities dependent on fishing in an economically perilous situation.

This is where the government began to push its PR message to try to allay public fears about the safety of seafood and show that it was responding adequately to the situation. Vietnam is still a one party state, but it is also a very connected country, and in recent years the government has been more active in its communication with the public. However, there is still some way to go in terms of the sophistication of these activities.

Local officials ate seafood at press conferences to prove its safety, the government announced it would buy the entire offshore catch of fishermen in the affected areas to prop up the local industry (the offshore fishing grounds presumably being free of any toxic pollutants).

Yet the main question in the public’s mind, what was the cause of the mass deaths, has remained officially unanswered. There has been steady stream of fingers pointed at a Taiwanese joint-venture steel plant in Thanh Hoa province, where most of the fish have washed ashore.

The government announced at the end of April that the steel plant was not to blame, even though numerous media reports exposed a rather shocking lack of oversight from environmental authorities. This was perhaps an overly-hasty move, given the lack of concrete evidence pointing to another cause.

The company did it self no favors when one of its senior officials told reporters: “Sometimes in order to win something, you have to lose something. It’s impossible to build a steel plant here and keep fish stocks in the surrounding area high at the same time.”

There was predictable outrage at the comments, the company have since issued a public apology and the official in question has been fired. Yet the comments really just illustrated what is the prevailing attitude in the country when the interests of development are stacked against preserving the natural environment.

In this respect, Vietnam is no different to most other developing countries around the world. Yet, a younger generation of Vietnamese, plugged into the internet and exposed to ideas and information from many different places, are pressing for more from authorities in term of transparency and concern for the environment.

Which is where we come to Facebook. This past Sunday, May 15, as with the two previous Sundays, the social media site was blocked in Vietnam. This coincided with rare street protest demanding answers to the mass fish deaths and greater transparency from authorities.

Police issued a statement blaming the protests on “an exile reactionary organization based in the United States”. It is difficult to know the extent of the involvement of this group, apparently named Viet Tan, but it ignores the fact many young Vietnamese people are demanding greater accountability from authorities, and greater regard for the environment.

It is also another sign the authorities have a good deal of fine tuning to do when it come to their PR efforts. Immediately resorting to those kind of anachronistic tactics and language is not the way to engage with an increasingly savvy, informed populace.

In the meantime, it’s probably best to opt for the steak instead of the fish.