Seventeen marine meteorological stations will be upgraded and others built to meet the 2020 target of 35 ones, under a natural resources and environment observation network masterplan.

The stations will help develop sea economics and tap natural resources.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will gradually complete and modernise current marine resources and environment observation stations.

It will build new ones in key zones to deal with natural disasters and protect the marine environment, while upgrading its sea database synchronously and systematically.
Tran Hong Lam, Director of the Oceanology Centre, said that after completion, the network of stations and the database will improve the state management of sea and islands including oil spill and rescues.
It will also be useful to the fisheries sector as it can locate dense populations of fish.

Vietnam’s 28 coastal provinces and cities include more than 1 million square kilometres of sea and 3,000 islands, so the demand for improved and synchronised information of the sea and islands is great.-VNA