Enhance your experience in Ha Long Bay

Heritage - Natural Wonder of the World Ha Long Bay is a treasure that Quang Ninh always preserves, conserves, and promotes its exceptional values and unique attractions. For many years, Ha Long Bay has been a favorite destination for domestic and foreign tourists. In order to enhance the experience for tourists, Quang Ninh has just sent a document asking for the opinion of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the aquaculture area in the buffer zone of Ha Long Bay, including a part serving tourism.

The location for the study to establish a detailed plan for concentrated aquaculture is in the protected area 2 (buffer zone) of the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay with an area of 260 hectares, divided into 2 areas. Area 1 (area 210 hectares) is located: East borders Tuan Chau - Cat Ba fairway; West borders Hoang Tan commune border area; South borders Ba Mom fairway; North borders Tuan Chau island. Area 2 (area 50 hectares) is located: East borders Vung Ba Cua island; West borders Bo Hung island; South borders Tra Huong island and Lach Ngan fairway; North borders Ba Mom fairway.

The project's farming objects are mollusks (geo clams, pearl oysters, clams, square clams, flower clams...), marine fish (yellowfin pomfret, sea bass, red snapper, grouper...) and intercropping some seaweed species. The aquaculture cages combined with tourism will be divided into 2 areas, including a commercial farming area and a demonstration farming area for tourists (farmed objects of large size, beautiful color, easy to observe, access...). Each farming raft has a minimum area of ^300m2 , with all the necessary components such as an operating house, warehouse, toilets, cages, safe walkways... Each cage has a volume of ^100-200m3 and each cluster of cages has about 10-12 cages. Cages are 20-30m apart. The investment capital is from the investor. Implementation time is from 2025-2030.

Fishermen's raft houses are preserved in Cua Van fishing village on Ha Long Bay. Photo: Phan Hang

The objective of the aquaculture project in the buffer zone of Ha Long Bay is to concretize the goals and tasks of sustainable marine aquaculture development of the Prime Minister, along with creating a stable and long-term livelihood for local people in sustainable aquaculture, contributing to the development of new tourism products suitable for the development of community tourism, responsible tourism, experiential tourism, etc. The location of the aquaculture project is outside the core zone of Ha Long Bay, so it has little impact on the conservation of the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay. This is also an area with a favorable location to connect with tourist areas, thereby creating new experiential products for visitors when coming to Ha Long, Ha Long Bay. Quang Ninh also commits to strictly comply with environmental protection measures, collect and treat all types of waste and wastewater at sea into the collection area for preliminary treatment before transporting them to treatment on land so as not to affect the water quality of Ha Long Bay and the surrounding environment.

Over the years, Quang Ninh province has always directed relevant units and localities to focus on protecting and managing the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay, including handling illegal aquaculture, which leads to the risk of losing security and order, traffic safety, and creating bad aesthetics on the bay. Along with that, in addition to protecting the natural landscape, geology, geomorphology, and ecological environment, Quang Ninh has increased its focus on protecting aquatic resources in Ha Long Bay. The locality has continuously launched peak periods to inspect and handle fishing vessels that are not registered, inspected, do not have fishing licenses, use prohibited fishing gear, and illegally exploit aquatic resources in the bay.

Quang Ninh's proposal and request for the opinion of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the aquaculture area in the buffer zone of Ha Long Bay, including a part serving tourism, has been supported by the people. Along with strengthening the protection of the marine environment, actively regenerating aquatic resources, and preventing destructive fishing, Quang Ninh has been showing its right direction in effectively exploiting the sea area of Ha Long Bay in economic development associated with tourism activities.

Source