Dead dolphin washes up on central Vietnam coast

By Duc Hung   December 16, 2016 | 03:56 am PT
Dead dolphin washes up on central Vietnam coast
Locals in Ha Tinh Province check the dead dolphin on Wednesday. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hung
The mammal was given a formal burial by local people who revere the creatures.

The rotten carcass of a 100-kilogram dolphin was found on the coast of Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam on Wednesday.

Local fishermen found the dolphin on Wednesday afternoon.

“It looked like it had died offshore some days ago before washing on the Ha Tinh coast,” a local fisherman said.

Locals have given the animal a formal burial. Vietnamese people traditionally revere whales and dolphins and consider them guardians of their fishermen.

More than 10 whales were found dead or stranded on Vietnam's central beaches in the first five months of this year, according to local media reports.

Ha Tinh was the center of an environmental disaster that grabbed global headlines earlier this year.

A government inspection was launched after 70 tons of dead fish washed up in Ha Tinh and the nearby provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue in April, It found that the Taiwanese-invested Formosa steel plant had discharged waste containing phenol, cyanide and iron hydroxide into the sea.

It created a seafood scare across the country and hit tourism in beach towns, harming the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people, including 41,000 fishermen.

Vietnam’s government has accepted Formosa’s $500 million compensation package and has been distributing the money to those affected.

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