Prevent fishermen from taking advantage of policies

Through the process of patrolling and enforcing the law at sea, the Command of Coast Guard Region 2 coordinated with relevant agencies to promptly detect many cases of fishing boats showing signs of profiting from the policy of supporting fishermen to go offshore.

Recently, the Coast Guard has regularly promoted and encouraged fishermen to comply with legal regulations when fishing. Photo: T.C. — Recently, the Coast Guard has regularly promoted and encouraged fishermen to comply with legal regulations when fishing. Photo: TC

Go to the beach just to... click coordinates

In early April, Coast Guard ship 4038 (belonging to Squadron 212, Squadron 21, Coast Guard Region 2 Command) patrolled and enforced the law in sovereign waters under the management of the region.

During the patrol, in the sea area about 40 nautical miles northeast of Son Tra ( Da Nang City), the interdisciplinary team on Coast Guard ship 4038 inspected a fishing boat with registration number DNa-90479TS drifting at sea. There was only the captain on board.

Working with the interdisciplinary team, Captain M., who is operating this fishing boat, said that the boat departed on April 1, and registered to depart with 4 crew members, meeting the minimum required staff.

However, explaining that there was only one person on the boat, Mr. M. said that the members went fishing and had a conflict so he sent a friend's boat to bring the fishermen back to shore. However, Mr. M. did not remember how the fishermen on the boat returned to shore.

Inspecting Mr. M.’s fishing boat, the authorities found that the seafood holds did not contain ice used to freeze the seafood. This is “unusual” for long-term fishing boats like Mr. M.’s fishing boat.

Similarly, in the sea area of Northeast Sa Huynh ( Quang Ngai ), the interdisciplinary team continued to discover the BD-97732TS ship with a capacity of 710CV, captained by Mr. Q. (residing in Binh Dinh), with only 2 people on board.

Besides Mr. Q., only one mechanic and two fishermen who had registered to leave the port returned to shore. Mr. Q. confessed that when the ship left the port, he released a basket for the two fishermen to swim to shore. The reason given by the captain was that one fisherman was sick and another was busy so he asked not to join the trip.

According to regulations, fishing vessels at sea must ensure a minimum crew size depending on the capacity of the fishing vessel. For the two fishing vessels mentioned above, the minimum crew size is 4 people.

At the time of inspection by the authorities, there were only 1 to 2 people on board, which was below the minimum crew size, violating regulations when fishing in the sea. The owners of these ships confessed that they had gone to sea to text coordinates to the shore station to complete procedures to receive support money according to Decision 48 on policies to encourage and support exploitation, aquaculture and seafood exploitation services in far-off seas.

Strengthen propaganda

Colonel Tran Hong Que - Deputy Political Commissar of the Coast Guard Region 2 Command said that for the two cases mentioned above, the interdisciplinary team has drawn up a record, requested these ships to return to shore and notified the Border Guard forces of Da Nang and Binh Dinh to receive and handle the incident.

The Coast Guard regularly patrols, disseminates information, and handles violations of fishing vessels at sea. Photo: T.C. — The Coast Guard regularly patrols, disseminates information, and handles violations of fishing vessels at sea. Photo: TC

According to Colonel Tran Hong Que, recently, the Command of Coast Guard Region 2 has coordinated with many units in reviewing, managing the registration and inspection of fishermen's fishing vessels; including checking the safety of crew members on board.

“The Coast Guard focuses on enforcing the law and handling violations in the areas under its responsibility. Together with many other units, we have stepped up prevention and handling of violations such as sending tracking devices to other fishing vessels and intentionally disconnecting tracking devices from fishing vessels.

This is to ensure safety first and foremost for fishermen going out to sea, ensuring compliance with legal regulations as well as fairness for all fishermen when participating in fishing" - Colonel Tran Hong Que said.

Regarding solutions to prevent fishermen from taking advantage of support policies, Colonel Tran Hong Que affirmed that recently the Coast Guard has actively promoted propaganda on shore and at sea for fishermen, raising their sense of responsibility in complying with regulations when participating in fishing.

“Fishermen must understand that ensuring the staffing level is a very important factor, helping to handle incidents at sea, ensuring the safety of their vehicles, lives and property. In addition to propaganda, we also regularly patrol and control and will have coordinated measures to strictly handle acts of taking advantage of the policy if fishermen deliberately violate it,” said Colonel Tran Hong Que.

Source