Fishing vessels operate off the coast of HCM City. — Photo www.sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City has registered all 4,455 of its fishing vessels on the national VNFishbase database, as authorities tighten management to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing ahead of the European Commission’s next inspection.

This was reported at a working session on February 25 between a delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the city People’s Committee in Bà Rịa Ward.

The delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phùng Đức Tiến, who also serves as deputy head of the National Steering Committee on IUU Fishing.

According to the city Department of Agriculture and Environment, of the 2,227 boats measuring 15m or longer, 2,204 have installed vessel monitoring systems (VMS), a 99 per cent rate.

The city maintains non-stop monitoring to promptly detect vessels that lose connection.

The remaining 23 vessels without VMS devices are not allowed to go out to sea.

Authorities have identified 490 vessels that are not eligible to operate due to issues such as expired licences or registrations, failure to install VMS or missing food safety certificates, and placed them under close supervision.

The city has nine fishing ports, seven of them grade-II ports and two of them grade-III, with four qualified to certify seafood origin.

In 2024-25 authorities recorded 1,827 violations and slapped fines of VNĐ12 billion (US$470,000) in 376 cases.

The remaining were closed due to insufficient evidence.

In the first two months of 2026, no vessels were found encroaching on foreign waters, while 38 vessels that lost VMS signals are currently under investigation.

Since 2024 there have been 669 violations, with authorities initiating criminal proceedings in nine cases fort alleged removal of VMS devices, organising and the falsifying seafood origin documents.

But the robust action notwithstanding, the ministry’s inspection team pointed out shortcomings, including slow and unscientific filing practices, inconsistent data collection and incomplete penal dossiers.

It recommended that the city should strengthen control over vessels operating and landing catches in other localities to prevent illegal fishing in wrong fishing zones.

City leaders proposed that the ministry should coordinate with other provinces to improve verification and case-transfer procedures for vessels that are unqualified or have lost VMS connections while docking outside the city.

They also wanted registration agencies to update inspection data in the VNFishbase immediately after surveys to avoid delays that often run to two or three weeks.

Deputy minister Tiến said the European Commission inspection team is expected to visit in March.

He called on the city to crack down on violations, enhance deterrence, tighten fleet management, and complete documentation to prepare for the inspection.

He said the period until March 10 is “critical”, and strong and coordinated efforts are required from all related authorities to quickly have the European Commission’s “yellow card” warning lifted and to build a responsible, sustainable and internationally integrated fisheries sector. — VNS