What will Nghe An do to join the whole country in removing the "yellow card" on seafood in October?

Spirit of synchronous and decisive participation

According to the schedule from the beginning of 2023, after the working and inspection trip in October 2022, the EC delegation will continue to visit Vietnam in April 2023 to review some contents and information that Vietnam provided to remove the yellow card. However, this plan has been postponed and postponed to October 2023. Therefore, from the beginning of 2023, the Prime Minister had an online meeting with ministries, branches and coastal localities. On that basis, a plan was issued for a 100-day peak campaign to promptly inspect and correct IUU fishing and exploitation activities; handle and publicly update violations on the system.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang chaired an online meeting on combating illegal fishing with coastal provinces and cities. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Next, at the meetings of the IUU Steering Committee (Steering Committee for the Prevention and Combat of Illegal Fishing), the head of the Government requested ministries, branches and localities to maintain the spirit of the above directive; at the same time, requested ministries, branches and localities to review the violation records, if there are enough signs, prosecute fishing boat owners who intentionally violate IUU to set an example for propaganda and mobilization; strive to remove the yellow card this October.

Implementing the above directive, the functional forces of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security, together with the Fisheries Surveillance Department, have stepped up joint patrols of the sea routes more frequently. Through inspections, the Coast Guard has discovered that IUU fishing vessels still exist.

Border guards approach fishing boats from other provinces at Nghi Tan fishing port to check fishing procedures and conduct propaganda. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Nghe An is one of the provinces with a large offshore fishing fleet. Since the implementation of the Fisheries Law and IUU fishing management, a number of shortcomings and limitations have arisen. Therefore, after the EC working group visited for the 2nd and 3rd time in November 2012 and October 2022, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a plan to implement Directive 45 of the Prime Minister on IUU fishing. Along with establishing an interdisciplinary team to control and carry out procedures for fishermen's entry and exit, from 2021, the Provincial People's Committee has established an interdisciplinary team to regularly patrol the coast and inspect food safety at fishing ports; the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development signed a coordination regulation with the Provincial Border Guard Command on inspection and control of fishing and exploitation activities in the estuary area...

Fishermen complete procedures to go offshore at Lach Quen fishing port (Quynh Luu). Photo: Nguyen Hai

Thanks to this, fishermen have changed from being opposed and annoyed when the authorities strictly monitored their entry and exit from the port to now having a change in awareness and being more cooperative. Every time they go out to sea to fish, they complete quite complete procedures; coastal and offshore fishing activities have become more organized, and the use of explosives or fishing gear that destroys aquatic resources has significantly decreased.

In addition, to support fishermen to go offshore, the Department of Fisheries and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development have advised the Provincial People's Committee and People's Council to approve a policy to support fishermen to install VMS equipment on vessels over 15m in length. Accordingly, the province has allocated approximately VND 20 billion to install over 1,000 new VMS devices (2 phases according to Resolution 01/2021 and Resolution 02/2023) and support monthly subscription maintenance fees.

During the inspection and working sessions with Nghe An, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien - Deputy Standing Member of the IUU Steering Committee acknowledged that Nghe An is one of the localities that actively and well implements the Law on Fisheries and IUU. However, the Deputy Minister also noted that Nghe An as well as other provinces need to take drastic actions and strengthen coordination with ministries, branches and localities to be effective.

New difficulties and challenges

At the latest working session of the Office of the IUU Steering Committee - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the provinces on September 28, it was shown that despite many efforts, the exploitation and fishing situation in the southern provinces such as Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, Ba Ria - Vung Tau... is still quite complicated.

The representative of the Department of Fisheries said: The difficulty in removing the 'yellow card' is that the EC requires strict handling of violations and public disclosure of the handling results for the monitoring team; at the time of inspection, if only 1 Vietnamese fishing vessel is caught illegally fishing, it will be difficult to have the opportunity to remove the yellow card.

Nghe An Fisheries Surveillance Force, part of the province's interdisciplinary team, requested a trawler in coastal waters to stop fishing to handle violations. Photo: Nguyen Hai

One of the difficulties in managing fishing vessels and inspecting law enforcement at sea is that when a vessel is arrested, its license plate is in one province but in reality it has been transferred to someone in another province, but the other province does not know.

According to the fishing quota announced by 28 coastal provinces and cities, the whole country has issued 95,703 fishing licenses, but the current data on local fishing vessel management shows only 86,820 fishing vessels. That means nearly 10,000 vessels have expired registration, inspection or transfer but have not completed the inspection and re-registration procedures. In Nghe An, up to this point, according to the EC's recommendations, there are still some issues of concern, when there are still 325 fishing vessels that have lost VMS connection for more than 10 days and in the first 9 months of the year, there are still 27 fishing vessels that have violated foreign waters.

Disseminate and popularize regulations on combating IUU fishing to fishermen before imposing penalties. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Mr. Tran Nhu Long - Deputy Head in charge of Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department said: Based on the current situation pointed out at the latest meeting of the Provincial IUU Steering Committee (September 25), the Provincial People's Committee has issued a document urging localities to grasp the above shortcomings and limitations to find solutions; requesting ship owners to commit to the authorities not to disconnect VMS when fishing ; not to violate foreign waters, review the status of fishing vessels that have not been inspected or registered...

Representatives of the People's Committees of coastal provinces also pointed out the fact that large vessels, especially vessels over 24m, often fish for long periods of time, seafood is sold to purchasing vessels or docks at the nearest port for sale, not regularly returning to the locality, vessels 15m or longer have not complied with the regulations requiring entry into designated ports, so it is very difficult to propagate, remind, handle violations as well as count and trace output.

Along with fines, authorities must handle and collect illegal evidence left behind by fishing boats in natural waters, limiting accidents for fishing boats and marine pollution. Photo: Nguyen Hai

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), in 2022, Vietnam's seafood exports will reach more than 11 billion USD, accounting for 20% of the value of agricultural exports. If the yellow card is removed, the above figure will certainly increase. On the contrary, if the yellow card is not removed soon or the red card is issued, it will be very difficult for Vietnamese seafood to enter Europe, because 100% of imported seafood output is inspected instead of being randomly inspected as before. This is not the final loss because if the EC imposes another yellow card or a red card, other major markets such as the US, Japan, etc. will issue yellow cards to our seafood; at the same time, expanding to other agricultural products. The biggest loss is the decline in Vietnam's reputation when integrating internationally but not being ready and fully implementing the signed commitments...

Source: https://baonghean.vn/nghe-an-lam-gi-de-cung-voi-ca-nuoc-go-the-vang-thuy-san-ngay-trong-thang-10-post277803.html