Institute · Nha Trang
Institute of Oceanography
Viện Hải dương học
The Institute of Oceanography (Viện Hải dương học) is a marine research institute at 1 Cầu Đá street in Nha Trang ward, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam[1], at about 12.2076 N, 109.2147 E[5]. It is one of the oldest scientific institutions in the country, founded on 14 September 1922 as the Service océanographique des pêches de l'Indochine[2][3], and it now reports to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology[1][4].
The institute took its present name under Decision 23/KHCNQG-QĐ of 19 June 1993[1]. It is organised into nine specialist departments, two administrative departments, three monitoring stations at Nha Trang, Can Gio and Kien Giang, and the Oceanography Museum, with 154 staff including two professors, three associate professors, 32 holders of doctorates, 55 holders of master's degrees and 42 engineers and graduates[1].
The museum holds about 23,000 specimens of some 5,000 species in about 5,000 m² of display and store space, together with tanks holding more than 300 living marine species[1]. It is described by the institute as the largest marine heritage collection in Vietnam[1].
Founding under French rule
The institute was created on 14 September 1922 as the Service océanographique des pêches de l'Indochine, the fisheries oceanography service of French Indochina[2][3]. The English account attributes the proposal to Alexandre Yersin, who was already running the Pasteur Institute at Nha Trang, and names A. Krempf as the first director[4]. Sources differ on the date of its promotion to a full institute: the Vietnamese article gives 1930 for the change of name to Viện Hải dương học Đông Dương[3], while the English article gives 1929[4].
In 1952 the body was renamed Hải học viện Nha Trang, the Institut Océanographique de Nha Trang, and the French government handed it to the southern administration in 1954[3]. Through the war years it trained marine researchers, surveyed the inshore waters and nearby islands, and took part in international work: the NAGA survey of the Gulf of Thailand and southern Vietnamese waters with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography aboard the Stranger in 1959 and 1960, and the Cooperative Study of the Kuroshio from 1965 to 1977[3].
Reorganisation after 1975
After reunification the Nha Trang institute was merged with the Marine Research Institute at Hai Phong, which had grown out of a 1959 Gulf of Tonkin survey team and a 1961 Hai Phong marine station[3]. From 1993 the combined body carried the name Institute of Oceanography, with its head office at Nha Trang and branches at Hanoi and Hai Phong[2][3].
In 2001 the two branches were separated into independent institutes, the Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics at Hanoi and the Institute of Marine Environment and Resources at Hai Phong, all three under what is now the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology[2][3].
The Oceanography Museum
The museum is part of the institute rather than a separate body, and was known from the 1930s as the aquarium of the Nha Trang oceanographic institute[3]. Its present form combines tanks used for research, display and public education with the store of preserved marine specimens[3].
Figures for the collection differ between sources. The institute's own site gives about 23,000 specimens of about 5,000 species and more than 300 living species in the tanks[1]. The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, writing at the centenary in 2022, gave tens of thousands of specimens of more than 6,000 marine species plus thousands of living animals of 400 species[2]. Vietnamese Wikipedia gives more than 24,000 specimens of more than 4,000 species[3], and the English article gives more than 24,000 specimens of more than 5,000 species together with an 18 m whale skeleton[4].
Research and standing
The institute's remit is basic research, baseline survey work, technology development and postgraduate training in oceanography and related fields[1]. It runs two laboratories designated key facilities at academy level, one for marine biology and marine dynamics and one for food safety and the environment in the central region[2].
At its centenary on 14 September 2022 the institute was awarded the First Class Labour Order, and the ceremony was attended by a deputy prime minister, the president of the academy and the provincial party secretary[2]. The academy's account of the event records 123 staff at that date, including two professors, two associate professors, 19 holders of doctorates and 40 holders of master's degrees[2], against the 154 staff given on the institute's own site in 2026[1].
Questions and answers
When was the Institute of Oceanography founded?
How large is the specimen collection?
Sources
Every figure in this article is cited to one of these pages, listed in order of first use, with the date it was read.
See also
- Nha TrangFormer city
- Alexandre YersinPerson
- Hon MunIsland
- Nha Trang BayBay
- Cai River (Nha Trang)River
- Hon MieuIsland