Border guard officials talk to fishermen on IUU regulations in Kiên Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

BẾN TRE — Coastal localities across Việt Nam's have been ramping up efforts to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing with the highly anticipated inspection visit from the European Commission (EC) to see the country's progress on this matter in mid-October.

The Mekong Delta province of Bến Tre in the south of Việt Nam has rolled out measures to tighten inspection over IUU prevention and control activities in the locality.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyễn Minh Cảnh said that the locality will launch a campaign against IUU fishing on mass media in preparation for receiving the EC inspection team this month.

Along with continuing to equip fishing boats with vessel monitoring systems (VMS), the province has focused on supervising the operation of vessels with a high risk of violating IUU fishing regulations and those operating in bordering waters.

It has coordinated with the coast guard force to handle arising issues at sea to prevent violations, while monitoring vessel activities in ports.

Since 2022, Bến Tre has deleted the registration of 643 vessels that no longer operate, while granting exploitation licences to 89.62 per cent of the local fishing vessels.

From 2019, the province has crossed out and handled 28 vessels violating foreign waters, collecting an administrative fine of VNĐ20.15 billion (nearly US$825,000).

As part of efforts to combat IUU fishing, the central province of Quảng Ngãi has freshly decided to fine the owners of two fishing vessels in Quảng Ngãi City with a fine of nearly VNĐ900 million for violations in fishing activities and vessel registration.

Over the years, Quảng Ngãi has worked hard to increase awareness and implement the Law on Fisheries and fishing regulations among local fishermen, while strengthening supervision over IUU fishing activities, thus joining efforts to remove the EC’s “yellow card” on Vietnamese seafood export.

Earlier on October 2, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Trần Phước Hải signed documents asking the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with relevant agencies to inspect and handle 45 24m-long vessels losing VMS signals for more than 10 days.

Meanwhile, the Mekong Delta province of Kiên Giang is finalising preparations to receive the EC inspection team from October 10-15.

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Quản Trọng Thao said that the locality has committed to strong IUU combat, developing a responsible and sustainable fisheries sector by enforcing the Law on Fisheries 2017.

Thao said that the EC team will focus on examining the activities of vessels at fishing ports, the control of fishing violations on foreign waters, the implementation of regulations on VMS installation as well as regulations on registration and licence issuance for fishing vessels. They also plan to review the control over the origin of seafood exported to Europe. It will work with a number of local firms engaging in exporting seafood to Europe to inspect their dossiers and procedures of tracing product origin, he added.

Chairman of the Kiên Giang Province People’s Committee Lâm Minh Thành asked the department to coordinate with other sectors to make documents for working sessions with the EC inspection team, clearly showing the locality’s determination and drastic actions in developing responsible and sustainable fisheries as well as preventing and fighting IUU fishing and observing EC recommendations.

So far, 99.32 per cent fishing vessels with a length from 15m in Kiên Giang have installed a VMS device, while the rate of vessels with daily VMS contact has reached 75 per cent, 15 per cent higher than the country’s average. — VNS