Quang Nam's bright spot in the urgent IUU mission

Many positive signs

On September 15, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien inspected and worked with Quang Nam province on the prevention of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

According to Ngo Tan, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Nam province, the anti-IUU fishing activities in Quang Nam have achieved some good results recently. 100% of fishing vessels in the province have painted their cabins to mark fishing vessels in accordance with regulations. The total number of fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more that have been assessed and granted certificates of food safety and hygiene facilities by the Department of Fisheries is 638/648 vessels, accounting for 98.4%.

In the province, 641 fishing boats of 15m or more have installed voyage monitoring devices, accounting for 99%. The remaining 7 fishing boats are built under Decree 67, boats from other provinces, boats with a capacity of less than 90CV, and boats with capacity but not in operation.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien works in Quang Nam province.

The province also decentralized the management of exploitation, use, and processing of fishing vessel monitoring data to relevant units to monitor fishing vessel activities, confirm aquatic product output, prevent natural disasters, handle disputes at sea, and prevent vessels from violating foreign waters... In the past 2 years, Quang Nam has not had any fishing vessels violating foreign waters that were caught and handled.

“The Fisheries Department has assigned specialized departments to organize on-duty monitoring, supervision, and coordination in handling information about fishing vessels losing connection signals at sea and fishing vessels violating fishing areas according to regulations. Currently, the equipment for on-duty monitoring and supervision of fishing vessels is relatively complete,” said Mr. Tan.

From the beginning of the year to September 8, the total confirmed seafood output was nearly 229 tons, of which, striped tuna: 118.35 tons; yellowfin: 19.42 tons; beef tuna: 22.89 tons.

Mr. Ngo Tan said that in 2023, there were 34 cases of ships losing signals for 10 days or more, and the cases have been handled. From 2022 to September 12, 2023, the locality organized specialized inspections, checks, and controls to administratively sanction 244 violations of regulations in IUU fishing activities with a total administrative fine of more than 3 billion VND.

IUU mission is urgent

However, the limitations that local authorities face are that the rate of fishing vessels under 15m in length that are granted registration, fishing licenses, and inspections is still low; updating fishing vessel data into the national fisheries database (VNfishbase) is not timely.

Mr. Tan pointed out: “The rate of controlling the output of fishing vessels operating offshore through An Hoa estuary has not met the requirements. The records are not clear, the coordination and exchange of information is not timely, leading to the failure to ensure reliability in controlling fishing vessels entering and leaving the port, and monitoring the output of aquatic products from exploitation and unloading through the port.

In addition, unscientific record keeping leads to untimely retrieval of records for inspection. Fishing vessels that do not notify before docking are still allowed to dock to unload aquatic products from exploitation but are not handled according to regulations.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the task of removing the IUU yellow card is urgent.

From there, Quang Nam province proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development advise the Government to have a support mechanism for fishing vessels operating in the permitted fishing area at sea of Vietnamese fishing vessels but being detained by foreign countries, helping fishermen feel secure to stay at sea.

At the same time, the Government's staff negotiated and signed a fisheries cooperation agreement with the Philippines, the main content of which is to allow offshore squid fishing vessels to exploit squid in some offshore waters of the Philippines.

Consider investing in the construction of Hong Trieu fishing port in Duy Nghia commune, Duy Xuyen district to become a Type II fishing port. In addition, soon issue standards and regulations on electronic diary equipment and related regulations.

Working locally, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien highly appreciated Quang Nam's work in preventing illegal fishing without reporting according to regulations. However, the province needs to resolve existing problems so that the fourth inspection by the EC in October will not be confusing or passive.

“In particular, the management of fishing vessels must closely monitor, closely direct and guide fishermen to keep full and accurate fishing logs, not to react; check and review fishing vessel inspections, and proactive disconnections. Ensure that administrative sanctions are applied to the right behavior, the right level of fines, and the right people,” said the Deputy Minister.

Mr. Phung Duc Tien commented that the IUU task is urgent, affecting the position and economy of our country in the international arena. Therefore, Quang Nam as well as other provinces and cities need to pay attention and have a mechanism to invest in the fisheries infrastructure system. When the fisheries infrastructure is ready, the management of the fleet, traceability as well as control and administrative handling will be ensured in accordance with regulations.

Quang Nam province has 9 fishing unions with 720 ships/4,879 workers; 158 solidarity teams and groups for production at sea with 1,040 ships/8,063 workers participating, contributing to supporting production, rescue and relief in case of accidents and natural disasters at sea. The total output of exploited aquatic products to date (September 11, 2023) has reached more than 74,250 tons/95,000 tons (reaching 64.74% of the 2023 plan).

Cong Sang

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