1 billion VND fine and confiscation imposed on vessels with regular foreign - water violation

In the morning of 22nd March 2021, the People’s Committee of Ca Mau province has decided to impose an adminitrative fine on Mr. Nguyen Van Dol (47 years old, residential address at Hamlet 5, Khanh Hoi commune, U Minh district) with the amount of 1 billion VND for illegal fishing in foreign waters.

Besides administrative fine, Mr. Dol also received an additional fine of vessel confiscation with registration number CM-95248 TS.

Mr. Le Van Su, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ca Mau province said that Mr. Dol’s violation deserves an administrative fine of VND 800 million -  1 billion. Owner of the fishing vessel was fined the highest level as he has regular violation activities.

Other than that, Mr. Dol employed a captain without certification, failed to re-register the vessel and purchase of crew covers.

According to Mr. Su, Mr.Dol is not the only vessel owner receiving the highest fine level due to illegal fishing in foreign waters without licence. Many other owners had been fined with higher amounts.

Previously, Ca Mau provincial authorities decided to impose an administrative fine of VND 630 million on Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An (born in 1975, residential address at Song Doc town, Tran Van Thoi district), captain of fishing vessel with registration number CM 99837-TS for his violation of fishing law.

Mr. An was imposed an administrative fine for his regular violation: Crossing national border without proceeding immigration procedures, using fishing vessel with the maximum length from 15 metres to under 24 metres without permit and expired permit for fishing activities in Vietnamese waters.

In addition, through inspection, it is found that the fishing vessel is not equiped with Automatic Identification Signals (AIS) as per regulation, no certification of technical safety for fishing vessels or expired certificate of technical safety for fishing vessels with the maximum length of over 12 metres. On-board crews are not provided with compulsory insurance.

Only in the first 8 months of 2020, Kien Giang has fined 27 cases of 47 fishing vessels violating foreign waters with a total amount of over 19 billion VND and confiscated 30 fishing vessels.

Also at this time, the total number of fishing vessels of Kien Giang fishermen violating foreign waters being arrested amounted to 58. Meanwhile, European Commission (EC) affirmed not to withdraw the “yellow card” imposed on Vietnamese fisheries industry if the situation exists, even just one case.

Although in recent years, Kien Giang has strongly carried out multiple measures of propaganda, advocacy and legal guidance..., especially focusing on the dessimination of 2017 Fisheries Law, Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP dated 8/3/2019 of the Government, Directive No.45/CT-TTg, Circular No.21/2018/TT-BNNPTNT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Plan No.134/KH-UBND dated 10/9/2019 of Kien Giang People’s Committee on the inspection of vessels calling ports, supervision the output of fisheries loading and discharging and confirmation of fisheries origin.

However, the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing still has certain limitations. According to statistics, Kien Giang currently has the highest number of fishing vessels violating foreign waters in the country (over 50%) that occurring in many years without signs of reduction of violation cases.

It is necessary to increase fine levels for vessels with deliberate illegal fishing activities in foreign waters, especially for cases with regular repetition.

The Fisheries Law in 2017 have applied some very high levels of administrative fine to minimize the Illegal, Unreported and (IUU) fishing activities.