Dak Lak: Decisive action taken to completely end IUU fishing.

Accordingly, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested that departments, agencies, and coastal communes and wards thoroughly understand the principle of "completing each task before moving on," emphasizing the responsibility of the head of each agency to achieve the dual goal: completely ending IUU fishing and successfully lifting the European Commission's (EC) IUU "yellow card" by 2025; and restructuring the fisheries sector towards legality, modernity, sustainability, while ensuring livelihoods and improving the living standards of fishermen.

Border guards are intensifying their efforts to educate fishermen about regulations against IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing.

The Provincial People's Committee has assigned the Department of Agriculture and Environment to take the lead in reviewing all of the EC's recommendations to definitively address the issues. The focus is on tightening the monitoring of fishing vessels through vessel tracking systems (VMS), ensuring the highest possible connection rate, and immediately handling vessels that lose connection or cross maritime boundaries.

In addition, the electronic fishing logbook (e-logbook) and seafood traceability system (eCDT) must be strictly implemented at fishing ports; data on the VNFishbase system must be regularly reviewed to ensure it is "accurate, complete, clean, and alive".

The Port Management Board is responsible to the Provincial People's Committee and to the law if any errors occur during the control, verification, and data transmission process; especially for acts of lax management, incorrect information verification, missing documents, failure to allow violating fishing vessels to pass through, or failure to comply with inspection and monitoring procedures as prescribed by current regulations.

The Provincial People's Committee has instructed the Provincial Border Guard Command to strictly control 100% of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports. They are to resolutely prevent vessels that do not meet the requirements from going to sea (unregistered, without a license, with a disconnected VMS device, etc.).

The provincial police force is focusing on investigating and decisively dealing with networks that broker the illegal export of fishing vessels to foreign waters.

In particular, the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of coastal communes and wards must be held directly responsible to the Provincial People's Committee if IUU violations occur in their areas. These localities need to urgently compile lists, take photos for archiving, and seal 100% of fishing vessels that do not meet the operating requirements, and absolutely not leave any fishing gear on board to prevent illegal fishing.

The Provincial People's Committee also requested that seafood businesses in the area commit to not purchasing, processing, or exporting products originating from IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202512/dak-lak-hanh-dong-quyet-liet-nham-cham-dut-triet-de-tinh-trang-khai-thac-iuu-fa21454/