Preventing smuggled lobster seeds

Many violations were handled

Khanh Hoa is a locality with strengths in developing marine aquaculture, in which lobster farming is strongly developed in coastal localities in the province such as: Cam Ranh city, Van Ninh district, Nha Trang city, Ninh Hoa town, with a total number of cages in localities up to hundreds of thousands of cages. Currently, due to the lack of initiative in seed production, for spiny lobsters, the seed source provided to farmers exploiting in bays and lagoons in the province meets about 10 - 15% of the demand; the remaining seed quantity is purchased from natural exploitation sources in the South Central provinces and imported from neighboring countries. In particular, green lobsters depend entirely on imported seed sources from other countries. Currently, the number of green lobster cages in the province is very large, the demand for seed is up to tens of millions of eggs per year.

A lobster cage farm in Van Phong Bay.

Due to the high demand, recently, the business of lobster seeds has been popular in some localities in the province, most concentrated in Cam Ranh City. In addition to some licensed establishments operating in accordance with regulations, recently there have been organizations and individuals importing, raising, and trading lobster seeds of unknown origin, showing signs of violating the law. Many violating establishments have been detected and handled by the authorities. According to the report of the Provincial Police, through the implementation of the plan on preventing, combating, and handling smuggling and illegal transportation of animals, animal products, livestock breeds, and aquatic products across the border into Vietnam, from March 2024 to present, 13 violations related to lobster seeds have been handled, of which 1 case was criminally prosecuted and 12 cases were administratively sanctioned, with a total fine of nearly 900 million VND, destroying nearly 850,000 lobster seeds of various types. Since the beginning of the year, the police have discovered 8 violations of trading lobster seeds of unknown origin and transporting lobster seeds without quarantine, with a total of 627,465 lobster seeds of various types.

Lobster seed sources are mainly imported from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore; transported by many different methods but mainly by air, through Tan Son Nhat and Noi Bai international airports; a part is transferred through airports of neighboring countries and then transported by road to Vietnam and brought to the South Central provinces, most concentrated in Cam Ranh City.

Focus on preventing violations

According to Mr. Le Dinh Khiem - Head of the Department of Fisheries, Seas and Islands, units importing and trading lobster seeds must fully carry out customs declaration and quarantine procedures and bring them to qualified breeding facilities, ensuring the prescribed time, and then they can be released into the sea. According to data from the authorities, the number of legally imported lobster seeds, quarantined, bred and managed in accordance with regulations is very small compared to the number of lobster seeds traded on the market. Due to the large profits from the lobster seed business, the subjects have smuggled, traded and transported illegally. This will lead to the risk of dangerous diseases from abroad, poor quality lobster seeds being brought into commercial farming.

Lobster seed depends mainly on imports and natural exploitation.

Currently, the demand for lobster seed production is very high, while the source of seed depends largely on imported sources, leading to a high risk of subjects smuggling, illegally transporting, trading in shrimp seed of unknown origin, violating regulations on shrimp seed breeding. From this situation, recently, the Provincial People's Committee has sent a document to specialized departments, branches, functional agencies, People's Committees of districts, towns and cities in the province requesting to strengthen the prevention of smuggling, illegal trading and transportation of lobster seed.

Accordingly, the Provincial People's Committee requested agencies, units and localities to strengthen information and propaganda work on the risks of dangerous diseases from abroad, poor quality lobsters due to smuggling, transportation and consumption of smuggled lobster seeds; strengthen inspection, examination and control work at airports, seaports, quarantine facilities, shrimp farming facilities to promptly detect, arrest and strictly handle cases of smuggling, illegal trading and transportation of lobster seeds in the province; proactively coordinate closely in the work of preventing and combating violations of the law in the fields of fisheries, environment, veterinary medicine related to illegal lobster seed trading activities...

HAI LANG

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/kinh-te/202505/ngan-chan-tom-hum-giong-nhap-lau-5416eed/