Study on marine biodiversity in the shallow waters of Vietnam

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Marine animals inhabiting shallow waters in Vietnam were studied in the periods from 2001 to 2003. Surveys were done under the cooperation of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, and the Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Haiphong. Specimens were collected by using bottom trawl, SCUBA diving, snorkeling, and nets. Major study sites were stationed in the northern and southern Vietnam. In northern Vietnam, Catba, being 1 hour by boat from Haiphong, was selected for this study. In Catba specimens were collected from muddy and, sandy bottoms in Tonking Bay at depths about 30-40 m by bottom trawl and some invertebrate specimens were also obtained by SCUBA. In southern Vietnam, the survey was made in Nha Trang having coral reefs near shore. In Nba Trang the research team was provided facilities by the Institute of Oceanography.In the collected specimens there are many interesting species including new species and those recorded for the first time from Vietnam. The collected specimens we … More re classified into hydrozoans, crustaceans, mollusks, fish parasites, and fishes. The new species found in the collection include some polyplacophoras and fishes. The greatest number of species collected in this study appears in fishes in which about 200 species belonging to 120 genera of 71 families were found, but the number of fish species may attain to about 300 species when the further study on the collections is made.The collected specimens include two categories, one representing bottom dwelling species from Tonking Bay and the other from coral reef animals from Nha Trang. The northern Vietnam collections include some species found in temperate waters such as China and Japan, however, the southern Vietnam collections are mainly composed of tropical species primarily found in coral reefs. Although it is clear that further studies should be made before we conclude faunal characters of northern and southern Vietnam, the specimens collected by our project show great biodiversity of marine animals found in shallow waters of Vietnam. The results of the study will be published in a series of the National Science Museum Monographs. Less