Red streak of sea water emerges off Da Nang, again

• Red streaks of sea water found near Taiwanese fish killer's plant in Vietnam

A sea water streak in red color was found off Vietnam's central coastal city of Da Nang on Wednesday, following a similar discovery last week.

Officials from a local district and Da Nang’s environment department have taken water samples for analysis, said Thanh Khe’s chairman Nguyen Van Tinh.

Local fishermen still operate near the reddish band, which is about 50 meters (164 feet) long.

The streak has appeared for the last two days, fisherman Diep Dinh Teo told VnExpress, adding that it is the first time he has ever seen such a reddish band.

Pham Thi Chin, an official at Da Nang’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said the streak has not expanded. She said she was waiting for the analysis results to know what exactly the band is.

People living along Vietnam's central coastline have become more alert to unusual changes in recent months, especially after an industrial incident in the central province of Ha Tinh led to a mass fish kill last year.

On February 24, a Facebooker reportedly posted images of a red water streak near Da Nang’s Son Tra Peninsula in Son Tra District.

Analysis later showed it was caused by acetes, said Le Quang Nam, director of Da Nang’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment. He added that it was a normal phenomenon and there was no pollution in the area. Acetes is a group of small shrimps often found near the coast. 

Workers at Taiwanese Formosa Ha Tinh Steel notorious for last year's mass fish kill reported two red streaks of sea water at a port near the plant in Vung Ang Economic Zone from February 16-18. 

They were caused by red algae, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Red algae were also named as the reason behind another reddish band spotted along the coast of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on February 23, according to the ministry.

In April 2016, waste water from the Vietnamese unit of Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group killed tons of fish along 200 kilometers of Vietnam’s central coastline.

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel made a public apology and fulfilled its compensation commitment after transferring $500 million to the Vietnamese government in August last year.

Vietnam's central region is expected to take a decade to completely recover from the incident, termed by the government as the country's worst ever environmental disaster.

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> Red streaks of sea water found near Taiwanese fish killer's plant in Vietnam