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controlled closely and the public awareness
of heritage protection must be raised.
When preparing the profile for UN-
ESCO, Haiphong City’s People’s Committee
deputy chairman, Le Khac Nam, warned of
the danger of Cat Ba’s seas being contami-
nated by the thousands of fish pens in the
area. Human activities in the buffer and
core zones could hurt biodiversity value,
making it hard for the archipelago to be
globally recognised. Therefore, the city
authorities urged competent state agen-
cies and Cat Hai district’s management to
launch measures to alleviate environmen-
tal pollution and scale up conservation
work. More importantly, Cat Hai has taken
strong measures to reduce the number of
fish pens.
According to Cat Hai district People’s
Committee chairman, Bui Trung Nghia, in
the past months the district has taken dras-
tic measures to slash the number of fish
cages and rafts, removing them to planned
areas to avoid adversely affecting the tour-
ism environment. The district also urged
competent state bodies and businesses to
care for the environment, particularly in
those areas demanding strict environmen-
tal standards.
Effective measures are urgently need-
ed to avert disadvantageous factors from
harming the Cat Ba archipelago heritage
site. Dangers include the dwindling man-
grove swamp areas; out-of-control popula-
tion growth; and rising cases of wildlife
exploitation. Another factor raising con-
cern is acquaculture not following scien-
tific planning, particularly regarding fish
and clam farming, causing water pollution.
Also, breeding clams is doing harm to the
natural landscape and the coral reef eco-
system since overexploitation of the sand
banks directly erodes coral reefs. Besides,
the high concentration of ships at fishing
ports and their careless operations could
cause oil spills and trigger the contamina-
tion of Cat Ba Island.
While recognition of the Cat Ba ar-
chipelago as a world natural heritage site
would be a source of great pride, winning
and retaining the recognition presents
big challenges and requires enormous
efforts from diverse state agencies and
local citizens.
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HOW TO GET THERE
Dinh Vu- Cat Hai- Cat Ba:
This is a new road way that will
come in to service in 2013. This
roadway has been improved and
two ferry journeys have been short-
ened – those from Dinh Vu-Ninh
Tiep (30 minutes) and Ben Got-Cai
Vieng (15 minutes).
Hydrofoils from Ben Binh to
Cat Ba:
Hoang Yen hydrofoil business and
Cat Ba island tourism JSC now of-
fer four to five hydrofoils per day
departing from Ben Binh, each
costing VND130,000 ($6)/ticket. It
takes around 45-50 minutes.
Halong Bay to Cat Ba Island:
Ferries operate from Tuan Chau to
Gia Luan Island. Visitors can choose
to take a bus trip fromCai Vieng and
Gia Luan to Cat Ba at VND15,000.