Illegal exploitation of seafood in foreign waters can be fined up to 1 billion VND

Fishermen in Nui Thanh district check and monitor the journey on their fishing boats before going out to sea. Photo: Q.VIET

Accordingly, fishing vessels 24m or longer that do not keep a seafood exploitation log; do not accurately record the requirements of the fishing organization; or report incorrectly when exploiting seafood will be fined from 500 million to 700 million VND.

The act of exploiting seafood in the waters of a foreign country or territory without a seafood exploitation license will be fined from 800 million to 1 billion VND.

Notably, Decree No. 38 has added the sanctioning authority of the forest rangers. The additional reason is to ensure that administrative violations in the protection of aquatic resources in national parks and conservation areas are detected promptly and handled according to regulations.

In addition, the competent authority and person to handle administrative violations are allowed to use professional technical equipment and means to detect administrative violations in the exploitation of aquatic resources, protection of aquatic resources and aquaculture.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien during a previous inspection to remove the "yellow card" on fisheries in Quang Nam . Photo: Q.VIET

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that Decree No. 38 increases the statute of limitations for administrative violations in the fisheries sector to 2 years while still maintaining strict sanctions for repeated or recidivist administrative violations.

Accordingly, turning off the GPS tracking device (GSHT) many times is an aggravating circumstance. Fishing vessels that do not maintain the transmission of information from the GPS tracking device on the fishing vessel to the fishing vessel monitoring system as prescribed or disable the GPS tracking device on the fishing vessel or do not have a GPS tracking device on a fishing vessel with a length of 24m or more will be fined from 300-500 million VND, and if they re-offend, they will be fined up to 700 million VND.

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