Forcing 58 foreign fishing vessels to leave Vietnam waters

On July 13, the Fisheries Control Department held a conference to evaluate the results of patrolling, inspection, control, and handling of administrative violations in service of combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the first 6 months of the year and tasks and solutions for the last 6 months of 2023.

Duong Van Cuong, Deputy Director of the Fisheries Control Department, said that in the first six months of 2023, the Department directed the Central Fisheries Control Force to organize 59 patrols, inspection, control, and handling of violations; supervised fishing activities at sea of nearly 6,300 fishing vessels; forced 58 foreign fishing vessels to leave Vietnamese waters.

The maritime law enforcement force under the Ministry of National Defense carries out procedures for the entry and exit of more than 432,000 fishing vessels; inspects and controls more than 94,000 turns of fishing vessels operating at sea; sanctioned and advises competent authorities to sanction 467 cases, 607 vehicles, and 754 subjects. The central law enforcement forces have issued decisions to sanction administrative violations about VND 22 billion;

On the local side, in the first six months of the year, 369 patrols were carried out, nearly 6,000 fishing boats were controlled and detected, advised to handle administrative violations in the fisheries sector, and more than 1,200 cases of violations, issued a decision to impose an administrative penalty of more than VND 27 billion.

Representatives of localities such as Quang Ninh, Kien Giang, and Ca Mau pointed out the current difficulties and problems, such as The increasingly sophisticated illegal exploitation of vehicle owners. Many coastal provinces have not yet established local fishing control forces. Even provinces with established fisheries surveillance forces lack human resources, means, equipment, and operating funds.

In addition, the authority to handle administrative violations of the local fishery control agency has not been specified in the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations; Especially from July 1, 2023, the Law on Inspection of 2022 took effect, the Sub-Department of Fisheries was not allowed to continue to perform the function of specialized inspection of fisheries, so many localities were still confused in law enforcement and handle administrative violations. It is necessary to have immediate and long-term solutions to solve and guide this.

In the last months of 2023, the Fisheries Control Department will submit to the Prime Minister for approval the Master Plan on the development of the Fisheries Surveillance force to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Review and re-sign the regulations on coordination with law enforcement forces at sea to ensure the effectiveness of patrolling, inspecting, and controlling fishing activities at sea; against IUU fishing.

Continue establishing local fishery control; supplement human resources, means, and funds to ensure the capacity to patrol, inspect, control, and handle administrative violations at sea.

Synchronously deploying solutions to prevent fishing vessels from violating regulations on IUU fishing; closely monitoring fishing vessels at high risk of breaking IUU fishing, especially fishing vessels that lose connection with VMS monitoring equipment at sea, fishing vessels crossing maritime boundaries, and violating foreign waters.

Nguyen Quang Hung, Director of the Department of Fisheries Control, said: "The task of patrolling, inspecting, controlling and handling administrative violations in the service of combating IUU fishing is a priority, important, needs to be done synchronously, with efficiency from central to local. From now to October 2023, before the EC Delegation comes to Vietnam for inspection, localities need to actively and make more efforts, organize peak rounds of patrol, inspection, and control, and strictly handle violations of IUU fishing, especially violations of VMS and illegal fishing in foreign waters. Strive until October to make the best effort to help remove the EC's yellow card".

Previously, between July 6 and July 7, the Technical Mission of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (MARD), led by the Director of Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance Nguyen Quang Hung, held meetings with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG-MARE) regarding illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Brussels, Belgium.

At these meetings, the Technical Mission updated Vietnam's progress in implementing the recommendations made by the European Commission during the October 2022 inspection. Both parties also engaged in an in-depth discussion regarding; Supplements and adjustments to the Decree amending Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP to only allow for the conversion of mining license quotas to environmentally sustainable fishing; Regulations on fishing vessel monitoring system (VMS) with a focus on detailed technical requirements for VMS equipment installed on fishing vessels; Additional responsibilities of VMS equipment suppliers towards fishing vessels; Supplementing regulations on controlling the origin of fishing vessels imported into Vietnam; Regulations on the designated fishing port, namely, if a port violates the regulations on certifying the origin of fishery products or fails to meet the aforementioned requirements, it will be removed from the list of designated fishing ports.