Installation of cruise monitoring equipment speeded up in Binh Thuan

Such a figure is one of the results achieved in implementing solutions to prevent illegal fishing in Binh Thuan Province to remove the "yellow card" imposed by the European Commission (EC).

IUU fishing politically discouraged

With a coastline of 192km and a territorial sea of 52,000 square kilometers, Binh Thuan Province is considered one of Vietnam's three largest fishing grounds. The number of fishing vessels in the province reached 6,768 by June 10, 1.892 of which are ships with a length of 15-24 m and 36 are over 24 m long.

Since the EC issued a yellow card to Vietnam's fisheries, Binh Thuan, together with other 28 coastal provinces, has made efforts to implement solutions to combat illegal fishing following EU regulation to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unreported unregulated fishing (IUU Regulation).

According to the province’s authorities, this is one of the most important and leading tasks. In 2020 and the first 6 months of 2021, Binh Thuan province seriously and drastically implemented the directive documents of the Party and the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee on IUU, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as utilized the drastic intervention of the whole political system to carry out tasks and solutions to prevent and stop fishing vessels from violating foreign waters and to abide by the EC's recommendations. Particularly, heads of relevant departments, units, localities, and organizations have been assigned with responsibilities, promoting the synergy of the whole people in the task of combating illegal fishing following IUU regulation.

As a result, the province has not detected any vessels that have been illegally fished and arrested by foreign countries since July 2019. Furthermore, 1,808 out of 1,924 fishing vessels with a length of over 15m in the whole province have installed VMS cruise monitoring equipment (93.97%) by June 10, of which, 100 percent of the fishing vessels with the largest length of over 24 m have installed the equipment.

Meanwhile, the number of fishing vessels that have not yet installed the cruise monitoring equipment are mainly those lying on the shore waiting for sales, damaged ones, or are in the process of transferring due to business loss.

IUU Steering Committee of Binh Thuan province has requested units and localities to encourage and remind ship owners to urgently install VMS equipment according to regulation. At the same time, the Provincial Border Guard, the Fisheries Sub-Department, and the Occupational Control Representative Office are requested to strengthen the management, inspection, and control of these ships, preventing them from fishing.

The representative offices of fisheries control at Phan Thiet, La Gi, and Phan Ri Cua ports have carried out inspection and control of fishing vessels following regulations. Accordingly, all fishing vessels with the largest length of over 24 meters, at least 20% of fishing vessels engaged in tuna fishing, at least 10% of vessels engaged in trawling, and 5% of fishing vessels under 24 meters engaged in other works have been inspected.

According to results obtained in the first 6 months of 2021, Phan Thiet fishing port inspected and supervised 1,120 fishing vessels entering the port to load and unload seafood with a total output of 7,160 tons; collected 992 mining logs (reaching over 88%). Phu Hai fishing port inspected and supervised 222 times of fishing vessels entering the port to load and unload seafood with a total output of 1,099 tons, collecting 219 fishing logs, reaching more than 98%.

Also in 2020, the Management Board of Phan Thiet Fishing Port issued 80 certificates with a total output of 1,671 tons of seafood, while the Fisheries Sub-Department issued 136 certificates with a total output of 2,929.98 tons of seafood. Since the beginning of 2021, the units have continued to issue 34 certificates, with a total output of 706,526 tons of seafood and 47 certificates with a total output of 936,528 tons of seafood of all kinds.

Violating fishing vessels strictly punished

In addition to such results, the violating fishing vessels on the sea in Binh Thuan Province have been strictly handled according to regulations.

According to Nguyen Van Chien, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Standing Deputy of the IUU Steering Committee of Binh Thuan Province, functional forces have severely handled and punished fishing vessels violating regulations in IUU fishing activities according to Decree 42 of the Government, in addition to legal education and propaganda.

Accordingly, in 2020 and the first 6 months of 2021, the Sub-Department of Fisheries fined 592 cases with total money of over VND4.38 billion. The Provincial Border Guard Command also fined 153 cases with a total amount of more than VND336 million.

In addition, on May 25, 2021, Phuoc Loc Border Guard Station, with the consultation of the People's Committee of La Gi Town, fined a fishing vessel Bth 96132 TS with the amount of VND25 million for not maintaining the operation of cruise monitoring equipment during its voyage.

In addition, the authorities discovered about 100 fishing boats of the province lost connection for more than 10 days at sea in the first six months of 2021. The Binh Thuan Fisheries Sub-Department has sent written notice and directed the Fisheries Surveillance Stations to coordinate with the Border Patrol and the local authorities to verify and work with the fishing vessel owners to remind and request to sign the commitment of opening the VMS device 24/24 according to regulations. Any fishing vessel that continues to violate will be strictly punished according to Decree 42 of the Government.