Scrubbing the ocean floor clean

Nha Trang’s offshore coral is being exploited at an alarming rate. With local fishermen trying to make money and ineffective protective measures in place, how long before the coral is completely obliterated?
Nha Trang is considered a major centre for marine tourism development in Vietnam with 350 hard coral reef species in the city’s coastal area.
Driving down Pham Van Dong road towards the city’s Vinh Phuoc quarter, I am blown away by the view of the immense blue sea. Down on the white sandy beaches, sea bathers bask in paradise. I decide to take a closer look. At first glance I’m impressed. The beach is quite clean and there is no visible rubbish.
But as I approach a nearby wharf, where fishermen’s boats are moored, I discover piles of recently removed coral. When I ask a fisherman by the name of Phan Van Thuy, he explains that many locals live off the exploitation of coral.
I mention that coral is protected by law in Vietnam and its exploitation is prohibited. If I don’t believe him, he says, I should wait till the tide goes out and watch the locals rush out to harvest coral.
I ask if they realise that coral attracts marine life. Healthy coral means more fish. More fish means more money for a fishing community. In the past, locals left coral alone, but now it has become fashionable to use coral for ‘decoration’. Thuy claims that coral is used to make food, handicrafts and rockwork or dykes at aquaculture ponds.
At first the money doesn’t sound lucrative. You can make VND1.2 million for a tonne of coral sold for rockwork. But Thuy claims that black coral, which is used for decoration and making medicine, can be sold for large sums. One kilogramme of black coral can sell for VND1.5 to VND2 million ($77-$102.5). Black coral is listed as one of 21 marine species in need of critical protection.
In recent years, there has been great demand for coral from China. There are two black coral species, including Cambodian coral and Indonesian coral. The former is often found in the sea areas between Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces.
“After buying coral, traders cut it into pieces and smuggle the coral in fruit carrying containers to hoodwink authorised agencies,” Thuy says.
“Vietnamese coral is coveted in foreign markets,” says Thuy and where there is demand, there will be supply. According to some locals, who admitted to exploiting coral, this illegal trade has developed rapidly in Vietnam in recent years due to a growing demand for live coral reef species in many Asia countries, but especially China. Illegal exports to China and Hong Kong are mostly shipped by sea but a small amount of live coral is transported by land from Vietnam into China.
Alarm bells sounding
Vietnam’s sea area is home to more than 1,100 square kilometres of coral reef. However, the Nha Trang Oceanography Institute has warned if this ecosystem disappears, the area would no longer be home to marine life. According to the institute, coral reefs are the “tropical forest of the sea” and necessary for a healthy and balanced ecology.
Coral reefs only grow one centimetre per year. This means that if a coral block of one metre in diameter is destroyed, it will take at least 100 years for the block to revive. The institute also claims Vietnam’s coral reefs will be exhausted over the next two decades partly due to human coral exploitation.
The vice head of the institute, Vo Sy Tuan confirmed that coral is currently exploited and traded on a large scale for domestic and export demands. However there was “no statistical data” available.
Most coral reefs in the coastal waters of Vietnam are under threat with 50 per cent of reefs considered to be at a high risk and 17 per cent at critical risk.
Vietnam’s coral reef is among the most under-threat in the region according to international scientists. Approximately 80 per cent of coral off the nation’s coast is threatened by human activity, slightly less than the Southeast Asia average of 88 per cent.
Uncontrollable management
The institute also claims coral around Nha Trang has not been protected effectively. Locals in Vinh Phuoc say that only some cases of illegal trading and transporting coral have been caught by local authorised agencies over the past few years.
“Coral exploiters have good relations with such agencies. So nothing can be done to stop coral exploitation,” says Pham Minh Hoa, a restaurant owner in Vinh Phuoc quarter.
A local coral exploiter by name of Phan Anh Dung is not ashamed by his livelihood. He claims that his family is poor. He has many mouths to feed and quite simply selling coral brings home the bacon. Just about.
“My wife is weak and ill. I have three kids in school. I am employed to pick coral at a salary of only VND2 million ($102.5) per month, which isn’t even enough,” says 43-year-old Dung, who has been doing the job for 10 years.
“I know that coral exploitation is illegal. But if I stop doing this, my children will go hungry,” he says.