Comply with regulations to remove the IUU "yellow card"

According to the IUU Steering Committee of Khanh Hoa province, recently, the locality has implemented many action plans to combat IUU fishing, quickly overcoming the "yellow card" warning of the European Commission.

In the first 9 months of 2023, Khanh Hoa Fisheries Sub-Department coordinated with the Center for Quality of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Products Region 3, the Center for Management of Aquatic Exploitation Works, and the Department of Quality Management of Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Products to organize inspection teams and review records of traceability of aquatic raw materials exploited at export processing enterprises in the province.

Combating IUU has achieved positive results in controlling and managing seafood exploitation in Khanh Hoa province.

Along with disseminating and propagating anti-IUU regulations to the fishing community. Provincial authorities have inspected and controlled 1,654 fishing vessels, an increase of 15.3% over the same period last year. Of which, 12 vessels from Ba Ria - Vung Tau province came to operate in the sea of Khanh Hoa province. Regular and continuous inspection of fishing vessels in the direction of strengthening control of fishing vessels at sea, especially focusing on fishing vessels catching raw fish, clamshell suction vessels, oil tankers, and chemical tankers.

Organize the review and statistics of fishing vessels that regularly operate, temporarily reside in localities outside the province and 3-no fishing vessels in the area. Currently, all 3,191 fishing vessels have been registered and granted fishing licenses, 99.6% of fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more have installed equipment in accordance with regulations. Check and confirm raw seafood for 5,114 tons of seafood, handle 312 violations of seafood exploitation, temporarily detain 64 fishing vessels, 19,255 kg of seafood in violation, impose administrative fines of more than 871.7 million VND. Strengthen control of fishing vessels catching seafood for export, fishing vessels catching raw fish for export with local administrative structures in the country operating at sea in Khanh Hoa province. There are 3 fishing vessels for seafood export of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province carrying out fishing activities for seafood export at Nha Trang seaport.

However, according to the IUU Steering Committee of Khanh Hoa province, there are still some shortcomings and difficulties, such as the Inspection Law 2022 coming into effect (July 1, 2023), according to which the Department of Fisheries no longer has the inspection function. Meanwhile, the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations has not yet stipulated the sanctioning authority of the Department Head - Department of Fisheries Control/ Department of Fisheries Control. This leads to difficulties and limitations in the performance of the tasks of the fisheries control force during the performance of official duties.

In addition, there is no data field on food safety of fishing vessels on the Vnfishbase software system, making it difficult to compare information about fishing vessels. Many fishing vessels of Khanh Hoa province regularly operate in other provinces and fishing vessels under 15m are not required to install voyage monitoring equipment, so managing these vessels is difficult.

Based on the results achieved and the challenges still facing, the IUU Steering Committee of Khanh Hoa province will continue to strengthen anti-IUU measures, while focusing on enhancing propaganda and education to raise awareness and consciousness of anti-IUU among the fishing community, ensuring the safety and sustainability of the province's aquatic resources.

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