On the afternoon of February 5, in Rach Gia city, Kien Giang province, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Head of the IUU National Steering Committee chaired the 2th meeting on combating illegal, unreported seafood exploitation. reported and unregulated (IUU) with relevant ministries, branches, units and 9 coastal provinces and cities across the country.
Giving a directive speech, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Head of the IUU National Steering Committee, requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, relevant ministries, branches, units and localities to focus their total efforts and coordinate Closely perform two tasks: no fishing vessels violating foreign waters and strictly handling IUU fishing violations. Especially in cases similar to those handled by Kien Giang, the provinces boldly bring them to the People's Court to judge and handle other cases for education and deterrence.
The Deputy Prime Minister proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continue to organize working groups to inspect, urge and guide localities to carry out the task of combating IUU fishing, and report to the Prime Minister on the results. implementation results. Coordinate with relevant sectors and localities to further strengthen effective and extensive propaganda work, especially taking advantage of the time when fishermen go ashore for the Tet holiday to promote propaganda and campaign against IUU fishing, not violating the law. Violating foreign waters by illegally fishing.
Fishermen's fishing boats anchored at Cai Be river, Chau Thanh district (Kien Giang).
For the Ministry of National Defense, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang requested to coordinate with relevant ministries, branches, units and coastal provinces and cities to continue comprehensively and synchronously implementing solutions, create changes in preventing and stopping illegal fishing vessels in foreign waters. The Ministry of Public Security focuses on investigating, preventing and handling acts of brokerage and connection, prosecuting and adjudicating violations.
The Deputy Prime Minister requested coastal provinces and cities to allocate enough resources and clearly assign responsibilities of local agencies and functional forces to thoroughly handle cases of exploitation violations. illegally in foreign waters, disconnecting VMS... Direct law enforcement agencies and forces to thoroughly apply measures right from shore to promptly detect early, from afar, and prevent , promptly handle fishing vessels and fishermen showing signs of illegal fishing in foreign waters.
According to the Department of Fisheries Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, from the beginning of 2023 until now, 64 boats/550 fishermen have been arrested and handled by foreign countries due to illegal fishing. Fleet management is not guaranteed according to regulations, monitoring and controlling fishing vessel activities in some localities is not synchronized. Currently, the whole country still has about 15.198 "3 no" fishing boats (no registration, no exploitation license, no registration), the largest number is in Binh Thuan province with 1.868 boats. The situation of fishing vessels buying and selling and changing ownership between localities is not tightly controlled, especially in the provinces of Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang...
Some localities have not seriously implemented the cessation of building, converting, and trading fishing boats without written approval from the authorities according to regulations, especially for ships of 15 meters or more leading to the ship's side. “3 no”.
In addition, the situation of fishing vessels violating VMS disconnection regulations continues to be common, from the beginning of 2023 until now, there have been nearly 5.000 vessels losing connection for more than 10 days. Violations of transporting and sending VMS devices on other fishing vessels to avoid monitoring by management agencies are becoming complicated, especially in the provinces of Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Ba Ria - Vung Tau...
The situation of violating fishing vessels operating in the wrong area occurs in large numbers, especially in the Northern provinces such as Thai Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh... but agencies and functional forces have not yet taken action to handle it.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang spoke to direct the conference.
On the other hand, the quality control of catch logs to serve the traceability of seafood origins in many localities is still not guaranteed according to regulations such as: Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thai Binh... has not been implemented yet. Unify and synchronize the electronic traceability system nationwide to monitor and control the work of confirming and certifying the origin of domestically exploited aquatic products.
The situation is that fishing vessels do not dock at ports to load and unload exploited aquatic products, but localities do not have effective solutions to ensure control and traceability of exploited aquatic products.
Law enforcement and handling of IUU violations are still lackluster and uneven among localities. From the beginning of 2023 until now, only 8/37 ships arrested and handled by foreign countries have been verified and sanctioned (accounting for 21,62%); Verifying and sanctioning cases of VMS connection loss according to regulations is still very limited; brought, prosecuted and adjudicated a case related to brokering and connecting fishing vessels and fishermen to illegally exploit foreign waters in Kien Giang province.
To achieve the goal and determination to remove the "Yellow Card" warning in 2024, in the immediate future we are preparing to work for the 5th time with the EC Inspection Team on IUU. Ministries, branches and localities commit and make efforts. resolutely fight against IUU exploitation, petitioning Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Head of the National Steering Committee on IUU, to request the heads of ministries, branches and localities to focus on leading and directing the solution. Eliminate shortcomings and limitations according to the EC's recommendations at the 4th inspection, ensuring there are specific results and data to work with the 5th EC inspection team (expected in September). April 4).
