Struggling to find a mechanism to "fine" fishing boats that lose VMS connection

Preventing and handling the situation of fishing vessels losing VMS connection while operating at sea is one of the four groups of recommendations that the European Commission (EC) requested to consider removing the "yellow card" for fisheries. Since the 4th inspection (October 2023) up to now, the situation of fishing vessels 15 m or longer losing connection at sea continues to be complicated, however, sanctions are still limited.

Detect more, process less

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has 1,943/1,951 fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more installed with VMS equipment (100% of operating fishing vessels); 8 fishing vessels have stopped operating and have not installed VMS equipment (5 vessels are serving sentences, 3 vessels are waiting for sale), these vessels are closely managed and monitored by localities. From May 19 to September 10, 2024, the number of fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters to less than 24 meters that lost connection for more than 6 hours and were detected as violating or received notices from the Department of Fisheries was 499/167 vessels, of which the Department of Fisheries has issued notices to 167 vessels, and the authorities are verifying and handling the case. The number of fishing vessels with a length of 24 meters or more that lost connection for more than 6 hours was 65/17 vessels. The number of fishing vessels with length from 15 m to under 24 m that lost connection for more than 10 days was 61/61 vessels, 4 cases were handled with a fine of 100 million VND. The number of fishing vessels with length from 24 m or more that lost connection for more than 10 days was 2/2 vessels, the Fisheries Sub-Department issued notices to 2 vessels and the functional forces are verifying and handling the case. Notably, during this time, Binh Thuan had no cases of fishing vessels crossing the maritime boundary.

Binh Thuan fishing boats operating at sea (photo: N. Lan)

To prevent fishing vessels from losing connection to VMS while operating at sea, the Department of Fisheries and relevant units have recently organized a 24/7 shift to monitor and supervise fishing vessel activities at sea through the fishing vessel monitoring system. Thereby, regularly updating information on the list of fishing vessels that have lost connection for 6 hours, more than 10 days at sea, the list of fishing vessels at high risk of IUU violations, and vessels that have crossed maritime boundaries to send to localities and maritime law enforcement forces to coordinate inspection and timely handling according to regulations. However, verifying and handling cases of fishing vessels losing connection to VMS is difficult for many reasons such as: satellite network errors, power loss due to dead batteries; unstable equipment; ship engine problems... Verification and handling take a lot of time because fishing vessels often operate at sea and anchor in other provinces and cities, so the ship owners and captains are rarely present in the locality. In addition, the use of GSTC software and VMS equipment as a basis for drawing up administrative violation records and issuing decisions to sanction fishing vessels that lose VMS connection or vessels that cross the border has not been specifically guided on authority, order, procedures, and sanction records, so the agencies deciding on sanctions are still confused and do not dare to implement them vigorously.

Verifying and handling cases of fishing vessels losing VMS connection is facing many difficulties (photo: N. Lan)

Coordinate thorough treatment

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Thanh Binh - Deputy Head of the Fisheries Sub-Department further explained: “Previously, before Decree 38, localities could handle vessels that lost VMS connection through technical equipment. However, currently the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not issued detailed instructions to concretize this decree, so localities are confused and hesitant to handle it because there is no basis for "cold fines" and according to regulations, a record must be made within 3 days, which is very difficult because fishing vessels are operating at sea. In particular, currently the loss of VMS connection due to equipment quality and unstable satellite transmission accounts for 50%. Therefore, requiring ship owners to report to the monitoring center 4 times/day is not feasible. In particular, the number of fishing vessels that lose connection for more than 6 hours a day is too large, some days there are over 100 vessels and most of the faults are not due to ship owners or captains but to equipment, so it is very difficult to handle”.

Currently, VMS disconnection due to unstable equipment quality and satellite transmission accounts for 50%. Photo: N.Lan

In order to increase sanctions for violations of the law in the fisheries sector, last April, the Government issued Decree No. 37 and Decree No. 38 regulating administrative sanctions for violations in the fisheries sector. This is one of the reasons why the EC postponed the inspection and removal of the IUU “yellow card” from May to October 2024 to have time to consider how Vietnam implements these decrees in practice…

Promote the dissemination of new decrees to fishermen.

With the above difficulties, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the province has proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development soon issue guidelines on the use of professional technical equipment and means to detect administrative violations in the field of fisheries. Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that from now until October 31, 2024, the Fisheries Sub-Department is required to maintain 24/7 monitoring of fishing vessel activities through the monitoring system. The interdisciplinary working group needs to closely coordinate with localities to strengthen monitoring, receiving, investigating, verifying, and handling violations of VMS. Strengthen state management of enterprises, service providers, and VMS equipment in the province. Because this is one of the important criteria that the EC will check to remove the IUU "yellow card".

The interdisciplinary working group needs to closely coordinate with localities to strengthen monitoring, receiving, investigating, verifying, and handling violations of VMS.

According to Decree No. 38 of the Government, the act of turning off VMS equipment will be fined from 500 to 700 million VND. For administrative violations committed by individuals in the field of fisheries, the maximum fine is 1 billion VND...

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/loay-hoay-tim-co-che-phat-nguoi-tau-ca-mat-ket-noi-vms-124625.html