‘Having a headache' with over 15 m long fishing vessels

Drastic measures for the high-risk fishing vessel group

In the first quarter of 2023, Binh Dinh had 3 fishing vessels with 16 fishermen violating foreign waters and thus arrested in Malaysia. in which, 2 fishing vessels with 11 crew members came from Phu Cat district, 1 fishing vessel with 5 crew members came from Hoai Nhon town.

Before the European Commission delegation comes to inspect for the fourth time, Binh Dinh feels more determined in preventing IUU fishing activities. The bottleneck in preventing fishing vessels from violating IUU fishing regulations in Binh Dinh is that the violating vessels are all less than 15 m long. Most of them are old, of low value, and do not belong to the group that must install cruise monitoring equipment, so the authorities could not completely control the ship's operation at sea.

According to a review by Binh Dinh Sub-Department of Fisheries, the whole province currently has 455 fishing vessels at high risk of IUU violations, of which only 140 vessels have a hull length of more than 15 m, while the rest are vessels with a length of less than 15 m.

One thing to add is that the violating fishing boats all departed at fishing ports outside the province. For many years, they did not bring their ships back to the locality, so they were beyond the control of the functional authorities.

Facing this fact, Binh Dinh authorities now forbid the construction of new ships under 15 m in length and temporarily suspend the issuance of fishing permits for groups of fishing vessels under 15 m operating outside the province.

Mr. Tran Van Phuc, Director of Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that at the beginning of March, Binh Dinh People's Committee signed a regulation regarding the coordination with Ba Ria - Vung Tau People's Committee in the work of managing fishing vessels and preventing IUU fishing violation.

Binh Dinh continues to sign the same content with other provinces such as Tien Giang, Binh Thuan, Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Khanh Hoa, Bac Lieu, Ninh Thuan, localities where ships of Binh Dinh fishermen regularly operate.

Problems in certifying the origin of seafood

Recently, Binh Dinh's inter-sectoral mission chaired by the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development inspected the implementation of the peak of the "180-day action" plan against illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing in Hoai Nhon town - the locality with the largest force of offshore fishing vessels in this province.

Hoai Nhon currently has 2,340 fishing vessels in total. Among them, 2,108 ships have a length of 15 m or more operating in the high seas, 232 ships have a length of less than 15 m operating in the lowlands. Also in Hoai Nhon, the delegation discovered certain problems in the work of certifying the origin of caught seafood at Tam Quan Fishing Port.

“According to regulations, Tam Quan Fishing Port is a designated fishing port to carry out certification of the origin of caught seafood. However, there are 14 private fishing wharves in the area, and so far Hoai Nhon fishermen have developed a habit of going to private fishing wharves to sell products, making it difficult for the functional sector to confirm product origin,” said Mr. Nguyen Minh Khai, Director of the Management Board of Fishing Ports and Urban Services of Hoai Nhon town.

Every time a fishing vessel docks, the Management Board of Tam Quan Fishing Port must send a specialized force to the private fishing wharves to check and confirm the origin of seafood. However, this is only a temporary solution and cannot be maintained forever, because the EC requires that the origin verification be done right at the designated and fully functional fishing port.

“The Management Board of Tam Quan Fishing Port proposes that the authorities of communes with fishing vessels actively disseminate information and guide people to bring the ships to the designated place to confirm the origin of seafood in accordance with regulations," said Mr. Khai.