Fishing boats in Bình Đại District, Bến Tre Province. — VNA/VNS Photo

BẾN TRE — The People's Committee of the southern province of Bến Tre has issued a plan to implement the Party Central Committee Secretariat’s Directive No. 32-CT/TW dated April 10, 2024, on strengthening the Party's leadership and direction on the combat against illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing and the sustainable development of the fisheries sector, so as to create a change in public awareness of the role and importance of these works.

Accordingly, Bến Tre is concertedly and effectively implementing legal regulations on fisheries as well as measures to fight IUU fishing, with a determination to achieve the goal of having the European Commission remove its "yellow card" warning on Vietnamese seafood exports in 2024.

The province is also managing fishing activities, protecting seafood resources and marine ecosystems, and developing fisheries in a sustainable, responsible and internationally integrated direction, in order to improve the livelihoods of people in coastal areas.

It aims to have 100 per cent of fishing vessels updated in the national fisheries database (VNFishbase); monitor and supervise 100 per cent of those operating at sea through the vessel monitoring system (VMS); and inspect all with a maximum length of 15 m or more on operation conditions when arriving and leaving the port.

All fishing vessels operating within and outside the province and those of other provinces operating inside the province are being put under control, and any violations will be punished strictly.

According to Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Nguyễn Minh Cảnh, to achieve the set goals, the locality has improved the effectiveness of communications and dissemination work, training and advocacy to raise awareness and sense of responsibility for the prevention of IUU fishing.

The province has strongly carried out solutions to reduce dependence on fishing for fishermen; and invested in completing fishing port infrastructure and storm shelters for fishing vessels in Ba Tri and Bình Đại districts.

Statistics of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development show that Bến Tre currently has 98.58 per cent of its ships installed with the VMS device. Since the beginning of this year, no local vessel has been arrested or dealt by foreign countries.

Over the recent years, in addition to implementing communication programmes in key communes as planned, the province has maintained the disseminations work against IUU fishing weekly via SMS messages sent to fishing boat owners and captains. — VNS