Building a collection of samples of marine life in the South of Vietnam

09/09/2021

Component project "Building a collection of marine samples in the South of Vietnam" code BSTMV.22/15-19 under the National Project "Building a National Collection of Vietnam Nature Specimens” was accepted by the State Council of Science and Technology, evaluated for scientific and practical significance and rated excellent on June 18, 2021.

The project, led by Dr. Hoang Xuan Ben and chaired by the Institute of Oceanography, targets to collect a sample set of about 50% of the total number of marine species in South Vietnam for display and research to meet the standards of Vietnam Museum of Nature; contribute to completing the set of marine specimens of the national specimen collection of Vietnam's nature for research and display; improve research capacity and community understanding; and improve skills on classification of marine organisms to support research on marine biodiversity, for conservation, reasonable exploitation of resources and education and communication on the marine environment.

The project has made the following notable new contributions:

- Collecting samples of groups including: Plankton, Marine Plants, Invertebrates and Vertebrates with a total of 20,101 specimens, of which 2,626 are on display and 17,475 research specimens. Among the collected specimens, there are 2,167 species, accounting for about 20% of the total number of species known in the waters of Vietnam. In addition, the project collected over 360 biological samples in the Spratly and Paracel maritime regions, contributing to affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over these two archipelagoes. Currently, all specimens with full data are being stored at the specimen preservation warehouse of the Institute of Oceanography.

- Contributing to training and improving research capacity on taxonomy for the Institute's scientific staff as well as new professional groups. On the other hand, through the component project, the experts have self-learned the skills of specimen processing and have produced beautiful, highly aesthetic specimens which can be preserved for a long time.

- Some unique specimens were displayed for visitors at the Gallery of Biological Evolution, Vietnam Museum of Nature. The display of specimens not only contributes to enhancing the biodiversity value of Vietnam's marine life, but also raises public awareness about the understanding of nature and conservation of marine resources.

- Discovering a new species of marine fish for science (Callionymus vietnamensis) and recording many new species for the marine fauna of Vietnam, as well as expanding the geographical distribution of many marine species.