Why did the captain avoid the designated fishing port?

Recently, the management and control of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, especially those 15 meters or longer, as well as monitoring landed catches and tracing the origin of seafood in the province, have been fraught with shortcomings. This has created difficulties in managing fishing vessel operations and affected the implementation of measures to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Báo Bình Thuận•12/05/2025

The volume of goods controlled through the port is limited.

The province currently has over 8,400 fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more (including over 2,000 vessels with a length of 15 meters or more), but only about half of them dock at the province's five main fishing ports: Phan Thiet Port, Phu Hai Port (Phan Thiet City), Phan Ri Cua Port, Lien Huong Port (Tuy Phong District), and La Gi Port (La Gi Town) to sell their catch. The remaining vessels mostly go to coastal areas and temporary docks such as Mui Ne, Ke Ga, Tan Thang, Phuoc The, etc., to sell their fish and refuel before proceeding to designated fishing ports to complete entry and exit procedures.

The province currently has more than 8,400 fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, in recent times, efforts have been made to control the entry and exit of fishing vessels at ports and monitor the catch landed at ports, but the rate of fishing vessels entering and exiting ports remains low compared to the total number of registered fishing vessels (8,562). From the beginning of the year until now, the Border Guard has registered and verified 9,521 instances of fishing vessels entering/exiting ports (5,273 departures, 3,948 arrivals), and the Port Management Boards have recorded 13,849 instances of fishing vessels arriving/departing from ports (6,861 departures, 6,988 arrivals, including 5,569 arrivals for unloading products). At the same time, the amount of catch controlled through the ports remains very limited. The volume of seafood transported through the port from the beginning of the year to date is 7,213 tons, accounting for only 9.8% of the total catch in the first four months of the year (approximately 73,300 tons).

Seafood throughput at the port accounted for only 9.8% of the total catch in the first four months of the year.

According to the leaders of Phan Thiet Fishing Port, the 2017 Fisheries Law mandates that vessels with a length of 15 meters or more must comply with procedures when docking at designated ports. This allows authorities to inspect and control offshore production records and procedures, especially monitoring the operation of vessel tracking devices and updating fishing vessel data into the national fisheries database (VNFishbase). This also helps to verify, certify, and trace the origin of harvested seafood to meet regulations for exporting processed seafood to European and other markets. This is also a condition for lifting the "yellow card" under EC regulations, but many cases attempt to evade it.

If docking at a designated port, the captain must notify the fishing port management board one hour in advance.

Many fishermen say that if they dock at a designated port, the captain must notify the port management board one hour in advance so they can check the vessel tracking equipment and various other documents and procedures. If everything is not in order, the ship will not be allowed to dock, preventing the fishermen from selling their catch. Most fishing vessels that only sell their products to wholesalers supplying markets and distributing domestically, without needing verification of the origin of their catch for export, bring their ships to temporary docks or coastal areas to facilitate the purchase of their seafood.

Most boats returned to temporary docks and coastal areas to purchase seafood.

According to the head of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, the department is establishing a special task force to address difficulties and help businesses find outlets for clean raw materials, facilitating smoother exports this May.

Strengthen control over fishing vessels.

Furthermore, the verification and certification of seafood origin also faces many obstacles, causing difficulties for businesses with export orders to the EU market, as they struggle to find clean raw materials. From the beginning of the year until now, fishing ports have only issued 10 certificates of origin for 60.5 tons of various seafood; the Fisheries and Marine Affairs Sub-Department has issued 26 certificates of origin for 109.4 tons of seafood. This is a bottleneck, due to the fact that, in addition to seafood products harvested from fishing vessels not meeting IUU regulations for origin verification, the relevant parties (ship owners, wholesalers, businesses, fishing ports) have not yet connected, coordinated, or supported each other in the process.

Furthermore, controlling the import and export activities of fishing vessels, especially in coastal areas, is also a crucial aspect of combating IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing. Due to the long and wide coastal areas of the province, it is easy for fishermen to dock their vessels in these areas to sell seafood, which is both unsafe and violates IUU regulations. Therefore, in recent times, the Fisheries Control Representative Offices at fishing ports and Border Guard Posts/stations have coordinated to organize intensive patrols and inspections of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, operating at sea, on rivers, temporary docks, and coastal areas; resolutely handling cases of fishing vessels that do not meet the conditions for operation (unregistered, uninspected, without fishing licenses, not marked, not equipped with VMS, etc.); and fishing vessels operating outside designated areas or routes. Fishing vessels failing to comply with regulations on docking, recording, and submitting fishing logs/reports... This allows for the timely detection of violations and the handling of fishing vessels that do not dock at designated ports to avoid paying fees and taxes... From the beginning of the year until now, the entire province has imposed administrative penalties on 85 cases/589.25 million VND in accordance with Decree 38/2024/ND-CP.

Authorities are organizing intensive patrols and inspections of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports.

To tighten control over fishing vessels entering the port, the Phan Thiet Fishing Port Management Board proposed: Functional forces need to strengthen patrol and control work, and strictly handle cases of fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more that do not enter the port to unload products; especially cases of fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more that do not dock at designated fishing ports listed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment . Functional agencies should continue to coordinate and organize specialized training courses on recording fishing logs, purchasing/transporting seafood, and reporting fishing activities to help fishermen understand and record correctly, improving the quality of logs to serve the traceability of seafood raw materials from fishing.

Promptly dredge the docking area and the port entrance channel at Phu Hai fishing port to facilitate the entry and exit of fishing vessels for loading and unloading.

Furthermore, it is required that coastal border guard posts/stations strictly implement measures to ensure that fishing vessels operating at sea have all the necessary documents as stipulated. If a fishing vessel is found not to have declared its entry/exit on the eCDT system, it must be required to do so before processing entry/exit procedures. In addition, the Phan Thiet Fishing Port Management Board hopes that relevant agencies will pay attention to and propose plans and financial resources to advise the Provincial People's Committee on the early dredging of the docking area and port entrance channel at Phu Hai fishing port, which has recently been designated as a fishing port. This will create favorable conditions for fishing vessels to enter and exit the port for unloading products, and facilitate the monitoring of fishing vessels and the traceability of seafood raw materials from exploitation in accordance with the law.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/tai-sao-thuyen-truong-ne-cang-ca-chi-dinh-130130.html