Binh Dinh no longer has fishing vessels violating foreign waters

Strengthening dissemination work

To contribute to the nationwide effort to remove the IUU "yellow card" warning from the European Commission (EC), in 2024, Binh Dinh focuses on drastically implementing urgent and key solutions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) seafood exploitation.

The hot spot for IUU violations in Binh Dinh is Phu Cat district, the locality with the largest number of fishing vessels violating foreign waters in the province. The majority of violating fishing vessels are vessels under 15 meters in length, not required to install cruise monitoring equipment, operating outside the control of the functional sector, and not returning to their localities for many years. In 2024, the government of Phu Cat district will implement solutions to rectify and thoroughly handle the above-mentioned violations.

“The People's Committee of Phu Cat district established a delegation headed by district leaders. The delegation’s task is to classify fishing vessels at high risk of IUU violations and then go to each family to disseminate and mobilize ship owners to sign a commitment to not violating IUU during the fishing process," said Mr. Pham Dung Luan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Cat district.

According to Mr. Tran Van Phuc, Director of Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in recent years, the province's agricultural sector has also coordinated with related branches to organize business trips to the South. This is a region with many fishing vessels owned by local fishermen that have been operating for many years and have not returned to the locality, especially vessels under 15 meters in length and at a high risk of violating foreign waters. After these vessels land to sell products, the units directly ask ship owners to sign a commitment so that the province will no longer have fishing vessels violating IUU by 2024.

"It is only one more month until the EC’s Inspection Delegation comes to Vietnam for the 5^th inspection. This is the golden time for the fisheries industry to remove the IUU 'yellow card'. At the same time, Binh Dinh fishermen are eager to go fishing due to favorable weather. Therefore, the province is aggressively implementing synchronous solutions to overcome shortcomings as recommended by the EC, especially thoroughly handling fishing vessels that do not comply with the EC’s regulations during the fishing process," said Mr. Tran Van Phuc, Director of Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Tightening fishing vessel management

Binh Dinh currently has 5,328 fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more registering for seafood exploitation. As of now, there are 4,775 vessels granted fishing licenses, accounting for 89.6% of the total number of registered fishing vessels.

To strictly manage the above number of fishing vessels, Binh Dinh has three participating forces, including the Sub-Department of Fisheries, the Management Boards of Fishing Ports, and Border Guards. These units closely coordinate in performing the following tasks: inspecting and controlling fishing vessels entering and exiting ports; checking cruise monitoring equipment on fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more; and monitoring the number of fishing vessels without offshore fishing licenses that have not installed cruise monitoring equipment or have not turned on the equipment when going offshore.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Binh Dinh Fishing Port Management Board, at fishing ports, along with monitoring and supervising fishing vessels entering and existing ports, confirming the origin of exploited seafood is also strictly enforced.

“When the ship docks, fishermen must present a fishing log containing the catch of seafood by product type. After that, the fishing port management board will send people to the ship to directly supervise the process of fishermen bringing products ashore for consumption. Caught seafood must be exploited in legal waters and have a clear origin to be certified. These are mandatory regulations on combating IUU fishing," Mr. Dung shared.

It is expected that the EC’s Inspection Delegation will come to Vietnam for the 5^th inspection. This is the decisive moment to remove the EC's IUU "yellow card" warning in 2024. Happily, since the beginning of the year, Binh Dinh has had no cases of fishing vessels crossing maritime boundaries or ships losing connection to cruise monitoring devices. Especially in the province, there are no fishing vessels violating foreign waters.

"The key task of the Binh Dinh functional sector during this time is to strictly control fishing vessels operating at sea and vessels entering and exiting ports. Especially, thoroughly handle vessels violating IUU, in which thoroughly handle cases of fishing vessels violating foreign waters, vessels with a length of 15 meters or more lacking a fishing license, or vessels disconnecting their cruise monitoring equipment for more than 6 months. Inspect and control fishing vessels entering and existing the port and trace the origin of seafood," said Mr. Nguyen Huu Nghia, Director of Binh Dinh Sub-Department of Fisheries.