Island · Nha Trang Bay and islands
Hon Mun
Hòn Mun
Hòn Mun is an island in the south-east of Nha Trang Bay, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, 10 km or about 45 minutes by boat from the port at Cầu Đá[1]. Its name comes from its rock, "đen tuyền như gỗ mun", as black as ebony[1]. Wikidata places it at 12.1675 N, 109.3058 E with an elevation of 124 m[2]. No fetched page gives the island's own area.
Its reefs were the reason for the Hòn Mun Marine Protected Area, Vietnam's first, launched at a conference on 8 June 2001 with a management board from 18 July 2001 and renamed the Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area on 12 March 2004[3]. The area covers about 160 km², 38 km² of land and 122 km² of sea, across nine islands[4], and its waters at Hòn Mun form the strictly protected sub-zone[14].
After a conclusion of the Standing Board of the Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee on 21 June 2022 on the loss of coral, the Nha Trang City People's Committee announced on 24 June 2022 that swimming and diving at every dive point around Hòn Mun would stop from 27 June 2022[8]. The provincial People's Committee's pilot reopening of 13 June 2024 covered four other areas of the bay and left Hòn Mun closed[12], and the provincial newspaper reported the suspension still in force on 13 May 2026[13].
Geography
The island lies at the seaward edge of the bay, 10 km from Cầu Đá[1]. Its shores are black rock with caves, and the Vietnamese Wikipedia article describes reef flats at about 10 m and caves at 10 to 15 m below the surface[1]. The same article claims about 350 coral species and "tới 1.500 loài" of the roughly 2,000 species of coral and marine life ("loài san hô và sinh vật biển") it says are known worldwide, figures it gives without a footnote[1]. Wikidata's item with coordinates, Q32199096, records the island at 12.1675 N, 109.3058 E, 124 m high, GeoNames 1574342[2]; a second item, Q10771166, carries the Vietnamese Wikipedia sitelink and no coordinates[16].
The national biodiversity portal counts about 252 ha of coral reef in the protected area, of which 22 ha at Hòn Mun, 20 ha at Hòn Tằm, 4.6 ha at Hòn Vung and 3.2 ha each at Hòn Rơm and Hòn Cau, with about 7 ha of mangrove and 78 ha of seagrass[14].
The marine protected area
The Hòn Mun Marine Protected Area Pilot Project was approved by the Global Environment Facility on 27 January 2000 and closed on 28 June 2006, with a GEF grant of 972,447 US dollars and co-financing of 1,148,627 US dollars; the World Bank was the implementing agency and IUCN the executing agency[5]. In Vietnam it was run by the Ministry of Fisheries, the Khanh Hoa People's Committee and IUCN, with money from the GEF through the World Bank, the Danish government through DANIDA, IUCN and Vietnamese counterpart funds[4].
The area covers about 160 km², 38 km² of land and 122 km² of water, over nine islands: Hòn Tre, Hòn Miễu, Hòn Tằm, Hòn Một, Hòn Mun, Hòn Cau, Hòn Vung, Hòn Rơm and Hòn Nọc[4]. The provincial newspaper counted over 350 hard coral species, over 230 reef fish, 112 molluscs, 112 crustaceans, 27 echinoderms, 69 seaweeds and 7 seagrasses in it in 2012[4]. A 2008 planning article recorded the waters of Hòn Mun and Hòn Nọc as the core conservation zone, with tourism kept to a minimum and no infrastructure allowed on those islands[15].
Loss of coral and the suspension of 2022
Coral cover at Hòn Mun fell from about 52 per cent in 2015 to under 11 per cent by 2022[6]. The provincial People's Committee's later plan attributed the loss to typhoon no. 12 of 2017 and storm no. 9 of 2021, an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish in 2018 and 2019, bleaching from high sea temperatures in 2019 and pollution, and put the decline at many sites at 70 to 80 per cent against the 2015 survey[10].
On 21 June 2022 the Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee issued Notification 347 (Thông báo số 347)[6]. The Standing Board's conclusion, reported on 22 June 2022, found that press reports of the reef's decline were essentially correct, blamed both the storms and weak state management, illegal fishing, dredging, unlawful coastal construction and tourism waste, and directed the city to suspend diving tourism in the areas where it could harm the reef, above all at Hòn Mun[7][8].
On 24 June 2022 the Nha Trang City People's Committee announced that swimming and diving at all seven permitted dive points around Hòn Mun would stop from 27 June 2022[8]; the Nha Trang Bay Management Board's notice of the same day said the suspension would last "cho đến khi có thông báo mới", until further notice[9]. Since then the board has surveyed the reef every quarter and cleared debris, and the province approved a coral nursery to supply colonies for restoration[6]. On 7 November 2022 the provincial People's Committee issued Plan 3028/KH-UBND, the master plan for restoring Nha Trang Bay to 2030[10].
Recovery and the pilot reopening of 2024
By February 2024 coral cover on the north and north-west of the island was 30 to 50 per cent; the suspension ordered by the provincial Party Committee and People's Committee remained, a temporary dive point was set up at Hòn Rơm, and the management board was installing zoning buoys, signs and surveillance cameras[11].
On 13 June 2024 the Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee allowed pilot diving at four areas: north of Hòn Rùa in Vĩnh Hòa ward, the artificial reef off Vĩnh Hòa, north-east of Trí Nguyên in Vĩnh Nguyên ward, and the water between Bãi Tranh and Bãi Sỏi east of Trí Nguyên. The same report stated that tourism at Hòn Mun could not reopen in 2024[12].
A survey on 13 May 2026 found that the share of live coral, its density and its area had all increased, while the former city People's Committee's suspension of swimming, diving and glass-bottom boat tours in the island's waters remained in place and only the north-east of Hòn Rơm received a limited number of divers[13].
Timeline
The dated decisions in the fetched sources are set out below.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 27 January 2000 | GEF approves the Hòn Mun MPA Pilot Project[5] |
| 8 June 2001 | Hòn Mun MPA launched; management board 18 July 2001[3] |
| 12 March 2004 | Renamed Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area[3] |
| 28 June 2006 | GEF project closes[5] |
| 21 June 2022 | Provincial Party Committee Notification 347[6] |
| 24 June 2022 | City People's Committee announces the suspension[8] |
| 27 June 2022 | Swimming and diving around Hòn Mun stop[8][9] |
| 7 November 2022 | Plan 3028/KH-UBND for the bay to 2030[10] |
| 13 June 2024 | Pilot diving allowed at four other areas; Hòn Mun stays closed[12] |
| 13 May 2026 | Survey finds coral recovering; suspension still in force[13] |
Questions and answers
Can people dive at Hon Mun?
When was the Hon Mun marine protected area created?
It was launched on 8 June 2001, given a management board on 18 July 2001 and renamed the Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area on 12 March 2004[3].
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.
- Hòn Mun
- Hòn Mun (Q32199096)
- Vịnh Nha Trang
- Khu bảo tồn biển Hòn Mun
- Hon Mun Marine Protected Area Pilot Project
- Hồi sinh rạn san hô Hòn Mun
- Tạm dừng du lịch lặn biển một số nơi trong vịnh Nha Trang để bảo vệ san hô
- Vụ san hô chết: tạm ngưng bơi, lặn quanh đảo Hòn Mun Nha Trang từ 27-6
- Tạm dừng hoạt động bơi, lặn biển tại khu vực Hòn Mun từ ngày 27-6
- Tăng cường bảo vệ khu bảo tồn biển Hòn Mun
- Nhiều giải pháp bảo vệ san hô vịnh Nha Trang bắt đầu phục hồi
- Thí điểm mở lại hoạt động lặn biển ngắm san hô tại vịnh Nha Trang
- San hô ở Khu bảo tồn biển Hòn Mun đang phục hồi nhanh chóng
- Khu dự trữ thiên nhiên Vịnh Nha Trang, Khánh Hòa
- Sử dụng vịnh Nha Trang theo hướng bảo tồn, phát huy giá trị sinh thái biển
- Hòn Mun (Q10771166)