Việt Nam has been working hard to carry out the EC’s recommendations about IUU fishing prevention and control. VNA/VNS Illustrative photo

THANH HÓA – To fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the central province of Thanh Hóa has been augmenting checks and stringently dealing with the boats that stay uncontacted at sea.

So far this year, Thanh Hoá has been implementing an intensified crackdown on IUU fishing to join nationwide efforts towards having the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” warning lifted soon. Monitoring and handling the vessels with disconnected vessel monitoring systems (VMS) is one of the most important tasks.

By the end of May, Thanh Hóa had recorded 335 vessels without VMS signals at sea, including 124 for over six months and the rest for over 10 days, according to the fisheries sub-department under the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Facing that fact, the local administration has ordered relevant agencies and coastal localities to verify information and strictly deal with those vessels.

Authorities have sent delegations for conducting patrol and examination at sea, the vicinity of river mouths, and fishery ports. They have also worked with owners of the vessels breaking anti-IUU fishing rules as well as those at high risk of committing violations.

In the period, local authorities have detected and dealt with 57 cases, collecting VNĐ733 million (US$28,800) in fines for such wrongdoings as not keeping logbooks, uninstalling VMS without equipment suppliers’ supervision, not submitting required information to fishery ports’ management boards before entering the ports, and losing VMS signals for more than 10 days.

Nguyễn Đức Cường, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said to tighten control over VMS disconnection, authorities will enhance management over the vessels arriving at or leaving fishery ports, especially their catches, to prevent illegal fishing.

He noted that lists of the “three-no’s” vessels (no registration, no examination, no licences) and ineligible ones were made and sent to communal-level People’s Committees and border guard posts to strictly monitor their docking locations.

All the 1,097 fishing vessels that are 15 metres long and over in Thanh Hóa have been equipped with VMS. The province has also updated information about 2,752 local vessels on the national fisheries database (Vnfishbase). Examination results, fishing licences, vehicles arriving and leaving fishery ports, and the caught volume recorded at ports have also been regularly updated.

Việt Nam has been working hard to carry out the EC’s recommendations about IUU fishing prevention and control, towards the goal of having the EC's “yellow card” warning over the problem lifted.

The EC issued a “yellow card” for Việt Nam in this regard in 2017. It is followed by a "green card" if the problem is resolved or a "red card" if it is not. A “red card” may lead to a ban on aquatic exports to the EU.

The EC is scheduled to come to Việt Nam for the fifth inspection around September - October this year. VNS