| Bac Lieu Province is a coastal area with a coastline about 56 km, covering a land area of 2.5626 km2. In this province, the rivers come into contact with the sea at 3 estuaries, namely Nhà Mát, Cái Cùng and Gành Hào, creating a dynamic balance between 3 main ecosystems adapting to fresh water, blackish water and sea water. This provides local economy with favorable conditions to develop aquaculture. In fact, nearly half of the province land area can be used for shrimp farming. Shrimp production yearly in the province is about 115,800 tons, ranking 3rd nationally and bringing about nearly USD 500 million. The study shows that during 2013 – 2018 area for aquaculture in the province increase gradually. Aquaculture water surface converted from crop land is about 572 ha, from forest is about 2,535 ha and other is about 1,350 ha. Aquaculture water surface at about 81,545 ha, accounts for 30% of the provincial natural land area. The concern here is the sustainability of aquaculture of the province since monoculture of shrimp may lead to the collapse of this economy because of the mismatch between demand and supply. Furthermore, environmental issues may consist of clearing mangrove forest and pollution from aquaculture wastewater. |