[Coral-List] Vietnam bans scuba diving to protect a coral reef

[Kosmynin, Vladimir]

Steve,

This is strange article about Vietnam banning diving in one of islands, I don't think we can really judge about what happened there based on that article published in Macaubusiness.com.   If you will look at the area, the diving probably makes the least harm for coastal ecology there. The island of Hon Mun is one of five larger islands and many more smaller ones located within about 10 km radius from large city and old resort Nha Trang. The resort development involves islands as well.  Indeed, there is a lot of pollution coming from the city and developed areas on islands, as well as from local agriculture. In addition to that there is extensive area of mariculture near Hon Mieu Island.  I think what Vietnamese government did, was creation of MPA around the least developed island of Hon Mun; the island also stays farther away from Nha Trang Bay and developed islands than other islands.  If it is MPA, would say this is right move, although it would not take away the problem of pollution. It would be interesting to hear about this ban from our Vietnamese colleagues and other scientists who works there.



Best regards,



Vladimir Kosmynin



Message: 1

Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 19:31:51 -0400

From: Steve Mussman <sealab at earthlink.net<mailto:sealab at earthlink.net>>

To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>>

Subject: [Coral-List] Vietnam bans scuba diving to protect a coral

              reef

Message-ID: <335cf11d-359c-43d3-a9ff-8a494d6d2d85 at Steves-iPad>

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In my opinion, scuba diving does little direct harm to coral reefs. On the other hand, divers, like all tourists, most certainly contribute to the overall problem. I say this with mixed emotions while preparing my dive gear for an upcoming trip to my favorite reef after a prolonged hiatus.



https://secure-web.cisco.com/1Xrsc4bWNumD1UvrK5C4s6qoM3fHvCCxHS0nnMPR1MTTzg3kNAvnUUjoYFhulQxBfE6nNA3DLyInTjWEYjU8nUZ6M_0d_C94mMP2Mw-a1pBaC1pa2QEUm-5vTNMMeX2MxOJ7jUOmkUtO5GiOYT5eH19ynvMlph4YQf4B7Yolr60cf1LDbKVjBf-DwV1pQNR3j63MLLcDOk5Bq59rVLscxyETNQJL4b2kDvhxtHBjesuyWjTjGi0IxIOekGsmt4nm09h1jIKnhN_B06NNv_ewnfem_PSB4tC1lbXGrLKCipob4OPUZVI7dpP4qeFeW1UJwaWkkztH0u5jcrL2wZ-UPmw/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macaubusiness.com%2Fvietnam-halts-scuba-diving-off-popular-island-to-protect-coral%2F



Regards,



Steve




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