Van Phong Bay

Geography

Vietnamese Wikipedia's geography section gives the bay's southeastern area, between the Hon Gom peninsula, Hon Lon island and Co Co island, as about 150,000 ha (1,500 km²), of which about 80,000 ha is water and about 70,000 ha is land^[1]; the figure is identical to the separately reported area of the Van Phong Economic Zone^[3], so it may describe that zone rather than the bay, and on the Vietnamese article's own wording it covers part of the bay rather than all of it. The bay's western shore runs for about 25 km along a spur of the Truong Son range, and its eastern mouth, 17 km wide, opens into the South China Sea^[1]. Vietnamese Wikipedia gives an average depth of about 22 m and a maximum of 25 m^[1]; the separate Van Ninh district article gives a range of 20 to 27 m^[4].

The bay is described in three named areas: Co Co island, off the Dam Mon peninsula in the east, has a small water surface but is deep and sheltered by surrounding islands^[1]; Ben Goi island to the north has shallow water of about 2 m, suited to aquaculture^[1]; and the Hon Khoi peninsula to the southwest is used for salt production and the extraction of construction minerals^[1]. Hon Lon, the bay's largest island, lies within it^[1]; Diep Son and Hon Ong (Whale Island) lie in its northern waters and are covered in their own articles.

History

The bay's name dates from 1825, when Emperor Minh Mang renamed it Van Phong; the gazetteer Dai Nam nhat thong chi records its earlier name as Hon Khoi^[1]. In 1905 the Russian Baltic Fleet anchored in the bay on its way to the Battle of Tsushima. French colonial authorities ordered the fleet to leave after 13 days, after which it continued to enter and leave the bay until it was joined by a further fleet under Nikolai Nebogatov on 9 May; the combined fleet left for good on 14 May^[2].

Economic zone and transshipment port

The Van Phong Economic Zone, covering the bay's shore across the former Van Ninh district and the coastal part of Ninh Hoa, was established by Prime Ministerial Decision 92/2006/QĐ-TTg of 25 April 2006, and covers 1,500 km², including about 800 km² of water and about 700 km² of land^[3]. An international container transshipment port broke ground inside the bay on 31 October 2009, invested by the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, with two berths totalling 690 m in length, each able to take a 9,000 TEU ship on completion^[1].

Lobster farming

The sheltered northern waters of the bay, off Van Ninh, carry an estimated 35,000 floating lobster cages, with about 10,000 off the former Van Thanh commune on the Hon Gom peninsula and more than 4,200 off Van Hung, each cage stocked with 200 to 300 lobsters^[5]. In April 2024 hot weather, high stocking density and low dissolved oxygen were blamed for daily losses of about 10 lobsters per cage and cumulative losses of about 10 per cent, with the bacterium Vibrio identified in affected cages^[5].