There is a gap in information regarding the distribution and abundance of marine mammals along the coast of Vietnam.  This is true for both cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) and sirenians (dugongs).  The lack of information poses a great challenge to conservation efforts from emerging anthropogenic threats to marine mammals in Vietnam.  In general, our knowledge and information on cetaceans inhabiting Vietnamese waters is outdated, scattered, and inaccessible to policy makers, conservation practitioners and the public. This absence of evidence-based knowledge also means that the conservation of cetaceans in Vietnam is largely driven by anecdotal information rather than science.

Whale temples have amassed a sizeable number of specimens that have been used as a valuable source of information concerning marine mammals in Việt Nam. Previous studies have examined some whale temples in southern Việt Nam, but contents of whale temples along the whole coast of Việt Nam have not been fully documented. Here we surveyed 18 whale temples in the central part of Việt Nam in Đà Nẵng, Quang Nam, Quang Ngãi, and Thừa Thiên-Huế Provinces, an area that had not been scientifically documented previously. We identified and measured 140 individual marine mammals from 15 species, four families, and two orders (Cetartiodactyla, Sirenia). By far the most numerous species encountered (n=41) was the inshore Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides). We also encountered >10 skulls of two other taxa: bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) and the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis).  Other delphinid species included Stenella longirostris, S, attenuata, Globicephala macrorhynchus, Grampus griseus, Feresa attenuata, Pseudorca crassidens, Lagenodelphis hosei and Delphinus delphis tropicalis. We identified one specimen of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and three of Omura’s whale (Balaenoptera omurai), increasing the number of records of the recently described Omura’s whale in Việt Nam to five. In addition, we identified three skulls or partial skulls of the dugong (Dugong dugon) in varying conditions, documenting their historical presence in central Việt Nam where they are no longer present. These records further underscore the importance of whale temples both as places of historical culture and reverence, and important repositories of biodiversity data, from which data on former and current marine mammal distributions can be derived.

Long Vu1, Ellen Hines2, Michael R. McGowen3, Charles W. Potter3, Truong Anh Tho1, Sui Hyang Kuit4

1 Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species, Việt Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Việt Nam

2 Estuary & Ocean Science Center, Geography & Environment, San Francisco State University, Tiburon CA 94920 USA

3 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC 20560 USA;

4 The MareCet Research Organization, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Keywords:  whale temples, marine mammal conservation, cultural practices, biodiversity, marine mammal distribution

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Dr. Ellen Hines, the Associate Director of the Estuary & Ocean Science Center, is a Professor in Geography at San Francisco State University. Her research addresses population and community ecology of threatened and endangered species incorporating local conservation efforts and regional scale coastal and marine management science. She has conducted international marine mammal research since 1999. Dr. Hines is an ASEAN research Fulbright Fellow, and a member of the International Whaling Commission Expert Advisory Panel on Bycatch. She is committed to collaborating internationally with in-country scientists to solve conservation problems threatening marine mammals.