Vietnam's Whale Temples Hold 25 Kinds of Whales and Dolphins, but Scientists See Only 3 from Boats

In Vietnam, fishermen have built more than 1,000 temples for whales. They pray to Ca Ong, a whale spirit they believe keeps them safe at sea. Now the same temples are giving scientists another gift: old bones that show which sea animals lived near Vietnam in the past.

The bones come from an old custom. When a whale washes onto the shore, people bury it like a family member who has died. They hold ceremonies, and after about three years they move the bones into a temple.

Vu Long is a scientist at the Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species. He and his team visited 18 temples and found 140 skeletons from 15 kinds of sea mammals. Some skeletons belonged to dugongs, large sea animals that eat seagrass and no longer live there. They probably disappeared because people hunted them, fishing nets caught them, and their seagrass food disappeared.

In all, scientists have recorded 25 kinds of whales and dolphins in temples. Over five years, they found 20 kinds on beaches, but they saw only 3 kinds from boats. That is why Vu Long says the temples are a valuable record.

Vu Long hopes the temples can help scientists and fishermen talk about fishing that protects sea life. His team still has hundreds of temples to document, and they plan to test the bones to learn their age. Young people are moving to cities, so the tradition may change, but many worshippers believe it will survive. In these temples, old beliefs and new science stand side by side.