85 Thanh Hoa fishing vessels are at risk of violating IUU fishing

A fishing boat owner was fined over VND 900 million

The People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province has just issued a decision on administrative sanctions against Mr Nguyen Van Tuan (Quang Thach, Quang Xuong, Thanh Hoa), the owner of a fishing vessel controlling TH 90221 TS.

Accordingly, the owner of the fishing boat TH 90221 TS was fined VND 900 million for the act of fishing in other national waters without a license.

In addition to the above fine, the violating fishing vessel owner is also fined VND 25 million VND disabling the cruise monitoring device during operation at sea and VND 7.5 million for the remaining errors. The total amount of fines imposed on the owner of this fishing vessel in violation is more than VND 932 million.

Along with the above sanctioning decision, Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee also applied additional penalties such as confiscating the fishing boat TH 90221 TS according to the provisions of Decree No. 42/2019/ND-CP dated May 16, 2019 of the Government on regulations on sanction administrative violations in the fisheries sector. The People's Committee stripped of the right to use the captain's certificate No. T001711 issued by Thanh Hoa Fisheries Intermediate School (now Thanh Hoa College of Agriculture), granted within 9 months to ship owner Nguyen Van Tuan according to the above provisions.

Not only being sanctioned, but the owner of the ship Nguyen Van Tuan is also responsible for paying more than VND 200 million for the purchase of guaranteed fuel for the Coast Guard ship 6002 - Coast Guard Region 1 Command, which accompanied the TH 90221 TS from the China Coast Guard to Nghi Son International Port.

Fishing boats are at risk of violations

According to the Department of MARD of Thanh Hoa province, in province, there are still fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing during their activities at sea.

Although all levels, branches and localities have promoted propaganda and required fishermen to comply with the provisions of the law in fishing, Through inspection at fishing ports, many fishing vessels are still violating errors such as: Failure to declare when docking and leaving port, lack of logging log, not turning on cruise monitoring equipment, Up to 30% of fishing vessels are overdue for registration…

Notably, through the fishing vessel monitoring system, it shows that there are still fishing vessels that lose connection offshore, this situation is quite common and frequent.

With the determination to join with the whole country to achieve the goal of removing the aquaculture "yellow card" by the end of this year, Thanh Hoa has included in a list of 85 fishing vessels with a high risk of violating regulations on anti-IUU fishing and sent to localities for monitoring and management.

In addition, to control fishing vessels operating at sea, and contribute to the implementation of solutions to combat IUU fishing, every week, Thanh Hoa Fisheries Sub-Department organizes to review and make a list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing and sends it to functional forces in the province and coastal provinces and cities. This is to coordinate, monitor, strictly control and strictly handle violations according to regulations.

In the first 7 months of 2023, Thanh Hoa's fisheries sector has coordinated with functional forces to patrol and control many trips at sea, estuaries, and fishing ports. Thereby, sanctioning 22 fishing vessels violating the fishing regulations with a fine amount of nearly VND 400 million.

Thanh Hoa Department of MARD proposed coastal localities and the Provincial Border Guard Command to continue implementing synchronously the contents of the Decision No. 81/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on promulgating the “Action plan against IUU fishing, prepare to work with the 4th European Commission Inspection Delegation”. In which, continuing to strengthen and diversify forms of propaganda, training and dissemination to the fishing community and related organizations and individuals on regulations on combating IUU fishing.

Along with that, request relevant forces and coastal localities to review and take measures to manage, prevent, and monitor fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing, especially fishing vessels in the waters adjacent to the Gulf of Tonkin demarcation line.

For means of detecting the fishing vessel monitoring system losing signal for 10 days or more or crossing the boundary, Thanh Hoa Fisheries Sub-Department will send a notice to relevant units for verification, inspection and handling when the fishing vessel returns to shore according to regulations.

With the determination to perform well the task of combating IUU fishing, in the coming time, Thanh Hoa will continue to strictly control fishing vessels entering and leaving the sea, and resolutely deny participation in fishing activities at sea if not complying with regulations.

In particular, the cruise monitoring equipment must be checked to ensure its operating status before the fishing vessel departs to operate at sea. The functional forces in the province will coordinate to organize peak patrols, inspect and strictly punish acts of IUU fishing according to regulations, especially in cases of fishing vessels violating IUU fishing in foreign waters.

It is known that Thanh Hoa province currently has 97% of fishing boats installed with cruise monitoring equipment. In addition, 98% of fishing vessels are marked and certified as qualified for food safety.