Fishing vessels IUU violations cause headache to authorities

According to the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province, since the beginning of this year, 5 fishing boats mainly from Phu Cat district with 30 laborers on board have been seized by Malaysian authorities for fishing and infringing in waters of Malaysia.In addition, 2 more other fishing boats and 10 laborers were also captured by Malaysian authorities while operating in sea. The seafood was confiscated before the boats were released at sea.

Some very small vessels with a length of less than 15m that were only allowed to fish near the inland or in coastal areas according to regulations, had been even caught fishing offshore in foreign waters.

According to Binh Dinh province's People's Committee, local fishing boats violations were being detained by Malaysian authorities, so it was not possible to make a file for handling. For example, fishing boat BD 30111 TS of Huynh Cong Hung in Duc Pho 1 hamlet, Cat Minh commune (Phu Cat district) which had a capacity of only 55CV and 12.6m length and did not install a cruise monitoring device, had been seized by Malaysian authorities with the seafood confiscated before released it at sea.

The Committee had directed the Provincial Border Guard Command to detain the boat and handle the issues according to regulations after it returns to shore and report the case to the Border Guard Command for further investigation.

According to Mr. Nguyen Tuan Thanh, Standing Vice Chairman of Binh Dinh province's People's Committee, in recent times, the province had administratively sanctioned 24 violating fishing boats with fines worth about VND21,640 billion, It confiscated and liquidated 2 vessels to collect VND318 million for the State budget.

The situation of fishing boats and fishermen encroaching on foreign waters in recent years has decreased, but more or less still occurs.

Statistics show that since 2018, most of the violating fishing vessels have a length of less than 15m and have been at sea for many years without returning home. This has hindered efforts to solve the IUU "yellow card" issues.

Over the past time, although the People’s Committee of Binh Dinh province and functional sectors have proposed many policies and solutions to prevent and stop the situation of fishing vessels violating foreign waters, such as: propagandizing to mobilize fishing boat owners, fishermen make a commitment not to violate foreign waters; supporting the installation of cruise monitoring equipment; maintain and strictly control fishing vessels leaving and entering berths; organize patrol and control of assigned sea areas; issue decisions to sanction administrative violations of fishing vessels. However, there are still cases of fishing vessels and fishermen violating foreign waters, greatly affecting the remedy of the “yellow card” of the European Commission.

Recently, Binh Dinh province has sent a written request to the Ministry of National Defense to direct the strengthening of law enforcement forces in the overlapping seas to promptly warn and prevent Vietnamese fishing vessels in general and Binh Dinh fishing vessels in particular.  If there are signs of infringing upon foreign waters, the forces should promptly notify local authorities to make a dossier of handling according to regulations.

For more than 400 fishing boats of Binh Dinh that have not returned to the locality for a long time, the People's Committee asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to direct the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces and localities where the above-mentioned fishing vessels are anchoring and operating to strengthen dissemination for fishermen not to fish infringing foreign waters at the same time strengthen management, control, and handling of IUU violations.

"The Ministry of Public Security is requested to direct the police forces in the southern provinces to enforce investigations, verify and set up a special project to fight with brokers to support fishing boats illegally working out in foreign waters," said Mr. Thanh.

Moreover, the official of Binh Dinh province also recommended the MARD soon develop a regulation on fishing vessel management in coordination with law enforcement forces at sea. He requested the Border Guard Command to direct border guards in the provinces from Binh Thuan to Kien Giang to strengthen inspection, control, detect promptly and handle fishing vessels showing signs of violations.