Ben Tre striving to remove the IUU yellow card

Currently, Ben Tre is one of the localities with large fishing fleets in the Mekong Delta. Along with efforts in exploitation to create a stable source of income, fishermen in this locality are actively following regulations in exploitation, contributing to the country's early removal of the IUU yellow card.

Mr Tran Van Ich, a fisherman in Tan Thuy commune, Ba Tri district, Ben Tre province, said that he has been working in seafood exploitation for nearly 20 years. Currently, his family has 3 fishing boats, including 1 offshore fishing boat. Recently, rising gasoline prices have made fishing difficult, but his ship always complies with regulations and unquestionably does not violate foreign waters. “The ship is equipped with a cruise monitoring device, the device is always turned on, we go to sea with a complete logbook, and return with full port reports. Now I go fishing on the wrong route, for example, crossing the boundary, I will be fined and have no income", Mr. Ich said.

To effectively prevent IUU fishing, functional branches of the province such as the Border Guard, The Department of Fisheries and the Fishing Port Management Board have cooperated with the authorities of 3 coastal districts. This cooperation aims to strengthen information, propaganda, inspection and supervision of fishing vessels operating offshore. In addition, government committees of local governments with fishing boats also assign officials and party members to be in charge of each fishing vessel owner's household, propagating and mobilizing fishermen to not violate IUU. This year, propaganda via SMS to fishing boat owners and captains has reached more than 2,350 fishermen. The message contents were selected by local authorities from the Fisheries Law, Decree No. 42 of the Government and from documents at all levels with information relating to aquatic exploitation activities.

The local seafood exploitation fleet has over 2,760 vessels, including more than 2,000 offshore fishing vessels. The total annual seafood exploitation output is more than 200 thousand tons.

Binh Dai district has a fleet of 1,166 fishing vessels, including 580 offshore fishing vessels. This year, local fishermen have overcome difficulties and have proactive plans for exploitation to save costs and ensure efficiency. The estimated annual output is more than 86,200 tons of all kinds of seafood. What is worth noting is that after the recent propaganda, inspection and supervision work of all sectors and levels, local fishing vessels all comply well with warnings from the European Commission (EC) against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Therefore, Ben Tre's offshore fishing fleet has no cases of violating foreign waters.

Mr. Huynh Van Mai, Vice Chairman of Binh Dai District People's Committee, said that against cases of IUU violations, the District Steering Committee will handle them very drastically. The fishing boats near the shore have all been registered, only a few boats are still lying on the shore. For boats and vessels that do not comply, the District People's Committee requests that the Border Guard and Police handle them strictly. "When we hear the news of vessels departing in the night, we will grasp the details and check them right from the hamlets and villages. Chairman and Comrades of the district-directed communes that do not complete the work will take responsibility", Mr. Huynh Van Mai emphasized.

To prevent IUU in the "sprint" phase, striving with the whole country to have the "yellow card" removed by the EC early next year, Ben Tre province has continued to coordinate with 8 coastal provinces in fishing vessel management. At the same time, the province signed a regulation to coordinate with agencies of the Ministry of Defense to drastically combat IUU fishing.

Currently, all fishing vessels participating in offshore fishing have installed trip monitoring equipment and maintained it while operating. The work of docking and leaving the port is carried out well, ensuring complete procedures when vessels go offshore to exploit with registration documents, inspection, exploitation license, and logging of exploitation. Since the beginning of the year, the number of fishing vessels crossing the border has decreased sharply, especially, no fishing vessels have been arrested for fishing in foreign waters.

Mr Nguyen Minh Canh, Vice Chairman of Ben Tre Provincial People's Committee, added that the province also signed a cooperation agreement with the Coast Guard Region III and Region IV in the fight against IUU fishing. Through implementation, the agreement has brought certain effectiveness, in addition to exchanging information, the parties also coordinate to handle violations at sea.​​​​​