Strengthening the fight against IUU fishing

In order to raise fishermen's awareness of law compliance in seafood exploitation towards the goal of removing the "Yellow Card" of the European Commission (EC) with the whole country, our province is working with coastal provinces to focus on implementing many synchronous solutions to prevent fishing vessels from violating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in foreign waters and other illegal fishing activities.

According to the Department of Fisheries, the province currently has a total of 2,304 fishing vessels, including 858 fishing vessels of 15m or more, with more than 170 solidarity groups at sea, 2 fishing unions have been established; there are about 17,900 workers working on fishing vessels (of which seasonal workers account for 23%). The province currently has 4 fishing ports (including 2 type II ports: Ca Na, Ninh Chu; 2 type III ports: Dong Hai, My Tan); there are 3 storm shelters (including 2 regional storm shelters: Ca Na, Ninh Chu; 1 provincial storm shelter: Cua Song Cai). In order to promptly prevent violations in fishing at sea, the authorities have organized many inspections, checks, and controls of fishing activities, fishing ports, and fishing wharves; focusing on the content of combating IUU fishing; on fishing vessel management and fishing vessel crew management, on collection, preservation and transportation of exploited aquatic products.

Officers and soldiers of Dong Hai Border Guard Station propagate to fishermen to comply with legal regulations in seafood exploitation activities. Photo: My Dung

Fisherman Nguyen Van Phong, Phuoc Dinh commune (Thuan Nam), owner of fishing boat NT 90409 TS, said: Strictly implementing regulations on fishing at sea, we seriously record and submit full seafood exploitation books to the competent authorities for inspection; do not violate the sovereignty of foreign waters, do not disconnect the journey monitoring device. When fishing in far seas, we often go in groups of about 10 boats, if there is a mechanical problem or problem at sea, we support each other promptly.

Implementing solutions to combat IUU fishing according to the Provincial People's Committee's Plan on implementing the task of preventing and combating IUU fishing until 2025 in the province, the functional forces have deployed many solutions to propagate, monitor fishing vessels, and trace the origin of aquatic products from exploitation. Up to now, the whole province has issued 849 food safety certificates for seafood subject to food safety certificates, reaching 98.95%; issued 856 fishing licenses for offshore fishing vessels; issued 522 licenses for offshore fishing vessels and 909 coastal fishing vessels. Implemented the work of marking 2,227 fishing vessels, of which: 858 vessels from 15m and above, reaching 100%, 460 vessels from 12 to under 15m (reaching 86%), fishing vessels under 12m are 909 vessels, reaching 100%. The whole province currently has 851 fishing vessels/852 fishing vessels in operation installed with voyage monitoring equipment, reaching 99.8%). Implementing regulations on traceability of exploited aquatic products, from the beginning of 2023 to now, over 10,000 fishing vessels have been recorded arriving and departing from the port, with a total of 7,200 tons of products unloaded through the port; at the same time, updating the results of fishing vessel control; monitoring data on aquatic product output unloaded through the port into the national database; organizing the recording and archiving of fishing vessel arrival and departure records in a timely and complete manner.

Fishermen in Ca Na (Thuan Nam) exploit seafood.

Mr. Tran Thai Anh Tuan, Head of Ninh Chu Port, said: According to the inspection process one hour before the boat arrives at the port, the vehicle owner and captain notify the port's on-duty force to know the time. After the boat arrives at the port, the vehicle owner presents the logbook and boat book for the inspection unit and coordinates with the Fisheries Department to confirm the information about the boat arriving at the port and the volume of goods. Through the inspection, most of the vehicle owners and fishermen have complied with the regulations on preventing and combating IUU fishing. Up to this point, there has been no case of Ninh Thuan fishing boats participating in marine fishing that encroached or violated foreign waters being arrested and returned.

According to the Department of Fisheries, in the coming time, in order to carry out law enforcement tasks, focus on urgent tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing to contribute to removing the EC's "Yellow Card" warning, the province will continue to strengthen inspection and control at seaports, resolutely not allowing fishing vessels to participate in seafood exploitation for vessels that have not installed voyage monitoring equipment, have not marked fishing vessels, have not been granted fishing licenses... Prevent fishing vessels that show signs of violating permitted boundaries at sea to illegally exploit seafood. Strictly handle IUU violations, especially for cases of fishing vessels operating but deliberately not installing or installing but not maintaining connection to voyage monitoring equipment; violating foreign waters to exploit seafood, exploiting expired seafood, not completing inspection and control procedures at ports. Conduct reviews and make a list of fishing vessels that have not installed fishing vessel monitoring systems (VMS); Organize the exploitation, operation and effective use of the fishing vessel monitoring system to monitor and supervise fishing vessels operating at sea. Organize the correct implementation of regulations on controlling fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, controlling the amount of aquatic products loaded and unloaded through ports to ensure the chain; carry out the work of tracing the origin of exploited aquatic products according to regulations with the checking and comparison of data from fishing logs, the national fisheries database VNFishbase, and the fishing vessel journey monitoring system.

Mr. Tuan

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