Officers of the Coast Guard Region 3 provides instructions and guidelines for fishermen in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province to strictly comply with the IUU regulations when fishing at sea. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Nhị

BRUSSELS — A technical mission of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), led by Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries (D-Fish) Nguyễn Quang Hùng, held a working session with the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG-MARE) of the European Commission (EC) on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) on July 6-7.

The delegation updated the EC on Việt Nam's progress in implementing the recommendations made by its inspection team in October 2022.

The two sides discussed and agreed on a number of issues related to provisions in the Decree amending Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP on transferring quotas of fishing licenses; the use of fishing vessel monitoring system (VMS); responsibilities of suppliers of VMS installed on fishing vessels; the control of the legal origin of fishing vessels imported into Việt Nam; and designated fishing ports. 

They also considered the amendment of Article 70 on control under the Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), and the supplement of regulations on control of aquatic products originating from fishing activities imported into Vietnam by container ships.

The Vietnamese informed the EC on the pace of deploying the management of offshore fishing vessels and vessels' movement through ports, and supervision of fishing output at ports; the implementation of the Capture Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Protection Plan; the fisheries management plan; the traceability work to ensure that shipments exported to the European market are legal; and the enforcement of law with a focus on handling vessels violating foreign waters and building a database on the handling of such violations from central to local levels.

According to Hùng, the two sides have basically reached an agreement on discussed issues and the DG-MARE also agreed with the work that Việt Nam has carried out.

The EC suggested that Việt Nam take stronger measures to combat illegal fishing and put an end to fishing boats violating foreign waters, as well as to handle fishing vessels that lose VMS connection, he said.

The MARD and DG-MARE are scheduled to hold an online dialogue in September to continue to exchange and update the implementation of recommendations before the EC sends its inspection team to Việt Nam to examine the country’s efforts on IUU fishing prevention and control in October.  — VNS