Ông Nam Hải
The Quest for "Lord Fish" and Vietnam's Whale Worship Tradition for Biodiversity Conservation and Habitat Restoration
Whale Temples or Ông Nam Hải are structures built by local fishing villages to keep cetacean remains following the traditional belief in whales, dolphins, and porpoises' divinity and protective nature over fishermen at sea.
There are 84 documented Whale Temples in 28 provinces along Vietnam’s Central Coast and Mekong Delta.
While many whale temples were reportedly destroyed during the French Indochina War (1946-1954) and by U.S. bombers in the American War (1955-1975), it is estimated that hundreds remain intact and cared for by an appointed community elder.
Our objective is to register every remaining whale temple along Vietnam's coastline through a community-based participatory research approach. Documentation enables protection of these spiritual ecological sites at the intersection of natural and cultural heritage.
Whale Temples - Vietnam
Telling Bones
Treasured skeletal materials entombed over time in whale temples contain a wealth of information regarding the occurrence of marine mammals in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, there's an enormous gap of information on cetaceans in the East Sea. This lack of information is the main challenge to conservation effort for cetaceans inhabiting Vietnamese waters from marine plastics in addition to overfishing, by-catch, and coastal developments.
Cataloging cetacean skeletal remains in whale temples is particularly useful for consolidating data on cetacean diversity, abundance and distribution in Vietnam. Traditionally, when coastal communities found a dead cetacean (from stranding or from fishing-gear entanglement), they buried the carcass in the nearest whale temples, or built a new temple at place where the carcass was found. Through collaboration with Smithsonian Institution, modern, reliable methods (e.g skull morphology, extraction of bone DNA) will be used to identify these specimens to the lowest possible taxon.
Whale Temples and Marine Plastics
Vietnam is among the top five source countries for the 8 million tons of plastic enters waterways and into oceans each year.
Could whale temples serve as a platform to engage fish-dependent communities on plastic pollution’s impact on marine life and cultivate pro environmental knowledge, attitudes and behavior with regards to biodiversity conservation and waste production?
It is estimated that more plastic in the ocean than fish by weight by 2050. UNESCO estimates that 100,000 marine mammals die because of plastic pollution each year and there is an alarming trend of beached whales with stomachs stuffed full of plastics. Beyond biodiversity loss, these charismatic megafauna play a critical role in the balance of marine ecosystems, which many millions of people throughout Vietnam depend on for their primary sources of protein or income. While many fishermen agree that marine plastics have some impact on the nearshore environment, many believe there is no impact on the offshore marine environment.
Some Vietnamese fishermen believe the real culprit behind a "Vietnamese" whale's death is the "Chinese" endangered Sawfish, a slow-growing ray armed with a giant saw blade.
Whale temples can serve as a platform for an awareness campaign at the local level on the impacts of emerging anthropological threats with a focus on ocean plastics.
Vietnam is uniquely positioned to address ocean plastic pollution through its dynamic, mysterious tradition of worshipping whales and dolphins as guardians of seafarers, particularly fishermen - many of whom are responsible for tossing plastics into the sea from their boats. We address plastic pollution by leveraging Vietnam’s spiritual ties to the sea and whales to preserve its natural heritage and facilitate environmental stewardship.
