Hue City: Thoroughly handle fishing boats unloading goods at undesignated ports

Fishermen prepare for a long offshore trip - Photo: VGP/Luu Huong

Hue City has a coastline of more than 120 km, a sea area of ​​about 20,000 km², with 5 estuaries including Thuan An, Tu Hien, Kieng, Binh An and Lang Co.

To date, the entire city has 1,127 fishing vessels registered and updated on the national fisheries database system (VNFishbase). Of these, 437 vessels are over 15m long; 148 vessels are 12-15m long and 542 vessels are 6-12m long. All 436 offshore fishing vessels have been installed with VMS voyage monitoring equipment, reaching a rate of 100%.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Hue City, to remove the EC's "yellow card", besides close supervision from the government, it is important to raise fishermen's awareness.

In recent times, the locality has recorded positive changes from the local fishing community. People increasingly trust the State's policies and strictly comply with regulations on boundaries and fishing methods. Many people have voluntarily committed to not participating in illegal fishing in foreign waters and to fishing in accordance with regulations.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Hue City, said that the industry identifies the prevention of IUU fishing as a continuous task, therefore, every week, the Department announces a list of vessels at risk of violating the VMS system so that the functional forces can grasp, inspect and handle it. The unit also maintains 24/7 duty on the VMS system to monitor, detect and promptly warn vessels showing signs of violations such as: crossing the boundary, losing connection at sea for more than 6 hours without reporting location, or losing connection for more than 10 days without returning to shore.

In addition, the City has deployed the Electronic Seafood Traceability Software System (eCDT) for 100% of vessels entering and leaving the port, to effectively monitor port output.

"Currently, 100% of ships entering and leaving ports are inspected and monitored for output; fishing logs and transfer logs are recorded and submitted. In particular, the City People's Committee is directing the final handling of the situation of fishing boats loading and unloading goods at private fishing ports and fishing ports that have not been announced as designated," said the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Hue City.

Authorities are determined not to allow ships that are not inspected, have expired licenses, or are not registered to sail. As of March, Hue City had 109 ships with expired inspections, 117 ships with expired operating licenses, and 65 ships with lengths from 12m to under 15m that were not registered due to lack of documents and could not be inspected.

The Department of Agriculture and Environment has directed the Fisheries Sub-Department to instruct ship owners to contact inspection facilities outside the province to carry out inspections, as the locality does not have such facilities. At the same time, coordinate with the authorities of coastal districts to organize visits to each household to mobilize and urge the completion of inspection procedures.

Regarding the issuance of certificates of origin for exploited aquatic products, up to now, the locality has issued 43 certificates with a product volume requesting certification of about 161.3 tons, of which 3 certificates were exported to Spain with a product volume requesting certification of 73.1 tons of flying fish and 40 certificates were exported to Japan.

Vice Chairman of Hue City People's Committee Hoang Hai Minh affirmed that in recent times, the City has always focused on and directed relevant units to synchronously, effectively and efficiently implement fisheries laws; overcome shortcomings and limitations according to the recommendations of the European Commission on combating IUU fishing. Unify awareness, action and participation of the entire political system in the work of preventing and combating IUU fishing; consider this a political task, priority, urgent, focusing resources on implementation.

"Currently, the city is continuing to promote communication activities to ensure transparency and honesty in efforts to combat IUU fishing. Diversifying forms of propaganda, training, and dissemination to the fishing community and relevant organizations and individuals on regulations on combating IUU fishing. On the other hand, fishermen need to carry out exploitation in parallel with resource conservation and long-term livelihood maintenance, thereby ensuring sustainable development of the fisheries industry," said Mr. Minh.

Luu Huong

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tp-hue-xu-ly-triet-de-tau-ca-boc-do-hang-tai-cang-chua-duoc-chi-dinh-10225052011395248.htm