Visiting Oceanography Museum in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa

The central coast city of Nha Trang takes pride in its bay. Actually, the whole country does as this body of water has been recognized as one of the world’s 29 most beautiful bays. With its pristine beaches, Nha Trang attracts tourists to enjoy world class scuba diving, snorkeling, squid fishing and surfing. But if you need a rest from all the sunshine on your skin, visit the Nha Trang Oceanography Museum located inside the Institute of Oceanography.
Institute of Oceanography is located on an elevated land, at 1 Cau Da St., next to Cau Da Wharf, about 6km from the centre of Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa Province. The institute, the first marine life research center in Vietnam, built by the French in 1923, is home to several well preserved marine specimens.
Visitors are dazzled by the thousands of specimens of more than 4,000 sea and freshwater species, including live animals in the aquariums. The shark tanks may make visitors thrill as these animals display their prowess and razor sharp teeth. Many different types of fish in diverse sizes, shapes and colors, as well as colorful corals, mollusks and crustaceans, fill the institute.
The institute displays numerous giant fossil shells, the skeleton of a whale which was buried underground for around 200 years, the biodiversity of mangrove forests and coral reefs. A gallery displaying fishing boats and nets and modern devices for off-shore fishing such as radars and compasses is at the first floor of the institute.
The Oceanography Museum displays in detail as followings:
Rough Model, Pictures and Marine Ecosystem Models
Rough Model of Vietnam Continental Shelf: indicates depth of sea bed Model of "Coral reef ecosystem” that introduces the biodiversity in a coral reef in Vietnam. Maps, pictures and images show marine resources and the importance of marine environmental protection…
Aquariums of Marine Species
There are many marine species with various colours and different shapes which are living in coral reefs such as: sea anemone, clown fish, blue & red starfish, sea lily, sea urchin, sea cucumber, lobster, Picasso fish, scorpion fish, stone fish, angel fish, blue dam shellfish, cleaning shrimp…
Marine Species in big Aquariums and Tanks
Scorpion fish is a typical species in tropical areas. They have mixed colour between red-brown and yellow. The two front fins usually stretch as bird wings, the back fin is shaggy with 13 poisonous prickles, tail fins are thin and transparent with several spots like Japanese paper fan. Scorpion fishes have likely dragon head and flexible body to move like beautiful dancers.
Horse-shoe crabs usually live in couple. Sometimes, five or six males follow tenaciously a female one. Horse-shoe crabs are considered as living fossils on the Earth which appeared about 400 million years ago.
Many big marine fishes including Black Tip Reef Shark, Leopard Shark and Ray... attract people by their briskly movement and food catching. Moreover, sharks with very sharp and pointed teeth may be thought as Evil Genius in ocean that can be also found at the Aquarium.
Sea turtle with some rare species in Vietnam such as Haws Bill turtle and Green turtle...
Marine Species in Small Aquaria
The symbiosis between sea anemone and clown fish is an interesting characteristic of the two species. There is a golden friendship among them. In fact, only clown fish can adapt sea anemone's tentacles which are full of poisonous substance used to attack their enemies. Clown fishes play in sea anemone's tentacles as a safety area. However, they have responsibility to bring foods to sea anemone.
Many colourful species belong to the family of Butter fly fish (Chaetodontidae), Spotted Sweetlip and Striped Sweetlip fish (Plectorhynchus chaetodonoides, P. gaterinoides), Longfin Banner (Heniochus acuminatus), Wrass (Labridae), Surgeon fish (Acanthurus spp., Naso spp.) etc. Other rare species belong to family of Blue Angel fish such as Emperor Angel (Pomacanthus imperator), Blue Ringed Angel (P. annularis), Clown Trigger (Balistoide conspicillum), Ribbon Moray Eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita)… Sea Horse (Hippocampus spp.), Groupers, Picasso fish... characterized by their typical colour and shape living peacefully in coral reef...).
Museum of Marine Biodiversity
The museum keeps and displays about 20,000 specimens collected through monitoring trips in the East Sea (Bien Dong) and some other contiguous areas. Specimens introduce biodiversity of marine and encourage people to conserve environment of ocean. The specimens are arranged based on biological development and evolvement of marine species.
Big Specimens
Humpbacked Whale's skeleton: 18 m in length and 18,000 kg in weight (excavated in Nam Dinh Province in 1994). Siren's skeleton (Dugong) was excavated in Con Dao in November 1997. Dugong is a threatened species of extinction. Before 1965, they had been found in some places of southern Vietnamese sea waters. But there was no information on their occurrence in the sea waters of Vietnam in the period of 1965-1995. At the end of 1996, a group of about 8-12 individuals appeared in Con Dao waters, Vietnam… Other big specimens of fish such as: Sun fish and Blanket ray (Manta fish)
Small Specimens
Swallows with very valuable nests which are made up from their spittle always live on sheer cliffs. Blue spot octopus specimen was first collected in Vietnam in 1999. This species has very strong poison that may cause death if people are bitten.
Visitors can also find several specimens of seal, sturgeon and King crab, giant clam, dolphin etc, and specimens of corals, seaweeds and shellfish at the Oceanography Museum.
Many creatures have been hunted to extinction or have succumbed to climate change or the devastated ecology. The institute calls on visitors to respect nature and protect the animals. This place has been attracting many visitors for sightseeing as well as studying.
More information:
Open time: from 6am. to 6pm., every day, including holidays.
Ticket price: Children: VND7,000 per person
Adults: VND15,000 per person
For about VND5,000 per person extra, groups of ten or more can follow a tour guide through the institute.
Phuong Anh (Collected)