Hon Mun Marine Reserve

On the southeast side of Hòn Mun, the cliffs are as black as ebony wood.

Vietnam's national tourism authority explains that this is where the island's name comes from. Mun is the Vietnamese word for ebony. Seen from a boat, the dark rock stands out sharply against the blue of the sea and the earth tones of the other islands in Nha Trang Bay.

But what matters more about Hòn Mun is not the color of its stone. It is what lies beneath the water around the island. This is one of the reefs in Nha Trang Bay that has kept the highest conservation value.

The Nha Trang Bay Management Board says the bay holds more than 252 hectares of coral, and about 22 hectares of that lie around Hòn Mun alone. This is one of the places that has stayed relatively stable, while many other areas are in decline. The board also records more than 222 species of reef fish and over 350 species of coral, along with many other groups of marine life.

In 2001, the Hòn Mun Marine Reserve was established. It was the first marine conservation project in Vietnam. The Ministry of Fisheries and the People's Committee of Khánh Hòa Province carried it out together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Royal Danish Government gave its support. The goal was not only to protect the coral. It was also to help the people living on the island build a more sustainable livelihood alongside the conservation. In 2005, the name changed to the Nha Trang Bay Marine Reserve, to reflect its wider area.

In June 2022, the Management Board decided to stop all swimming, diving and glass-bottom boat activity in the waters around the island, so that the reef could be surveyed and restored. After more than a year, monitoring showed that in some areas to the north and southwest of Hòn Mun, live coral cover was about 74.5 percent. For the people who work in conservation, it was a sign they had waited a very long time to see.

Hòn Mun is not only a place to look at. It is a living lesson in what happens when people agree to step back. A coral reef does not form in a few years. It is a place of shelter, breeding and growth for hundreds of species of marine life, built over many generations, slower and more patient than anything people can make.

Seen from the water, Hòn Mun is only an island of black rock in a blue bay. But beneath that water, a world is quietly coming back to life.