Khanh Hoa applies technology to manage fishing vessels and trace the origin of aquatic products

The critical factor in removing the IUU "yellow card" warning is to end the situation of fishing vessels violating foreign waters and controlling aquatic products originating from exploitation imported into Vietnam.

In reality, in recent times, relevant ministries, departments, sectors, as well as localities and functional forces, have made many efforts to strengthen the implementation of regulations and solutions to combat IUU fishing. However, the awareness of law compliance of several fishermen and businesses is still minimal, even deliberately committing violations, leading to difficulties in implementing regulations on combating IUU fishing by functional agencies.

Nguyen Duy Quang, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Khanh Hoa province, said that in the past time, the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province has invested in a fishing vessel monitoring system (shore station) located at the Department of Fisheries with a large screen system, and arranged staff on duty 24/7 to monitor fishing vessel activities during fishing operations at sea.

Thereby, promptly notifying fishing vessels that have lost the fishing vessel monitoring signal (VMS), warning fishing vessels operating near the permitted boundary line for fishing at sea and search and rescue work, warning of natural disasters, etc.

In addition, Khanh Hoa province has applied the Electronic Catch Documentation and Traceability system (eCDT) at fishing ports in the area.

The system is equipped with four tablets installed at the representative offices of fisheries inspection and control to control fishing vessels from the time they leave the port until they arrive at the port on the system. Thereby, ensuring transparency and legality in confirming, certifying, and tracing the origin of exported aquatic products.

As of early September 2024, Khanh Hoa has 3,266/3,266 fishing vessels registered and marked following regulations; fishing vessel data is fully updated on Vnfishbase software.

644/647 fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more have installed voyage monitoring equipment; 1,085/1,363 fishing vessels (from 12 meters or more) have been granted technical safety certificates; 586/647 fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters or more have been granted food safety certificates...

To implement solutions to combat IUU fishing, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Khanh Hoa province has coordinated with departments, branches, and coastal localities to organize more than 21 training courses, disseminating the 2017 Fisheries Law and documents guiding the implementation of the Law; Directives of the Secretariat; telegrams and decisions of the Prime Minister; announcements of the conclusions of the Head of the National Steering Committee on IUU... for more than 1,400 people.

Carry out certification of seafood products from exploitation to the EU market for 182 shipments with a total of 2,534 tons and to other markets for 5 shipments with a total of 12 tons.

The representative office for inspection, examination and control of fisheries inspected and controlled 1,450 arrivals and 1,487 departures; the amount of seafood inspected and controlled was 6,464 tons.

The Department of Fisheries has coordinated with localities to verify the technical specifications of 264 qualified fishing vessels; granted registration certificates to 90 fishing vessels; currently, 174 fishing vessels are completing registration procedures according to regulations; granted fishing licenses to 3,145/3,266 vessels (reaching 96%).

For three enterprises in the province that violated the origin of aquatic products from exploitation and unloading at fishing ports, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has advised the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province to issue a document directing, coordinating with relevant localities and competent agencies to investigate, verify and strictly handle the violations of the enterprises...

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, it is expected that in October 2024, the EC delegation will visit Vietnam to inspect and evaluate the implementation of the law and combat IUU fishing, so this is a special task that requires cooperation and coordination of ministries, branches, units, localities, and fishermen nationwide.

Accordingly, localities need to implement well four groups of recommendations: Completing the legal framework, Strengthening the management of fishing vessels, Controlling the traceability of exploited aquatic products, and Handling fishing vessels violating foreign waters to serve the inspection and assessment work of the EC. This is the "last chance" because the European Parliament is about to hold an election. If the IUU "yellow card" cannot be removed this time, Vietnam must wait about three more years to welcome the next inspection delegation.