Fishing vessels are inspected when entering Dương Đông river estuary in Phú Quốc City, Kiên Giang province. VNA/VNS Photo

KIÊN GIANG – The southern province of Kiên Giang continues to carry out drastic measures to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Lâm Minh Thanh has asked the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to complete the registration, the granting of technical safety certificates and fishing licences for vessels, as well as the installation of vessel monitoring systems (VMS) according to regulations.

The department has also been asked to update fishing vessel information on the National Fisheries Database (VNfishbase) and the VMS, and to regularly monitor the situation of local fishing vessels, especially newly-registered ones.

The department and relevant units have been asked to verify information, strictly punish vessels that violate regulations on the VMS connections and those that cross the operation boundary at sea from October 2023 to present, especially those with a length of 24 m or more.

To date, Kiên Giang has 9,069 registered fishing vessels updated on VNfishbase; of which 3,625 measure from 15-24 m or more in length; 8,694 have been granted fishing licences; 3,450 got food safety certificates; more than 3,600 with the length from 15 metres or more have installed VMS, while the rest have not installed the device because they remain on shore.

Local border guards were asked to tighten control over fishing vessels when they leave ports as well as strictly punish those that violate foreign waters.

So far this year, Kiên Giang has recorded 10 cases involving 14 fishing vessels violating foreign waters. Over 1,330 instances of vessels staying unconnected from their VMS at sea have been identified. In addition, authorities have inspected more than 1,000 vessels, discovered and handled more than 160 with signs of violations. VNS