More than 1,000 fishing vessels belonging to the category of ‘missing’ will be deregistered

Mr. Quang Trong Thao, Deputy Director of the Kien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the unit had just issued a notice about the fishing vessels belonging to the category of “missing” for the reason that it was overdue time, but the ship owner did not carry out the registration procedures to issue the Fishing Vessel Technical Safety Certificate and Fishing License according to quota.

According to Mr. Quang Trong Thao, through review and verification, as of April 24, 2023, Kien Giang province had 1,006 fishing vessels with the expiration of the Fishing Vessel Technical Safety Certificate and Fishing License for over two years. In which, the areas with the largest ships include Kien Hai district (231), Rach Gia city (174), Phu Quoc city (131), Kien Luong district (112), and Hon Dat (109).

The above-mentioned ships belong to the category of "missing" fishing vessels because, as far as we know, they have not installed cruise monitoring equipment according to regulations, they have violated foreign waters, and the owners are no longer in the locality. The fishing vessel changed its owner but could not contact the ship owner, or the ship owner was no longer in the locality and could not be contacted. This is a list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating regulations on illegal fishing because they are not under the management of the functional sector.

The Kien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed the People's Committees of districts and cities in the province to direct specialized departments and committees and the People's Committees of communes, wards, and towns to coordinate in the public listing implementation of the list of the above-mentioned “missing” fishing vessels.

At the same time, take measures to notify fishing vessel owners to know and comply with the provisions of the Fisheries Law 2017 before the fishing vessel is deregistered from the Vietnam Vessel Registration Book.

Strengthening inspection and handling of violating fishing vessels

Kien Giang is the province with the largest fishing fleet in the country, with 9,515 registered units so far. In which fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more are nearly 3,700 units, those from 12m to under 15m are 1,540 units, and the rest are ships with a length of 6m to less than 12m. The number of ships that have installed cruise monitoring equipment is 3,634/3,698 units.

According to Deputy Director Quang Trong Thao, in order to overcome limitations in the work of combating IUU fishing, the province continues to coordinate with the central functional forces stationed in the area to open patrol peaks to control and strictly punish IUU fishing activities. The agricultural sector has verified and handled 100% of fishing vessels that do not maintain the connection of cruise monitoring equipment and coordinated with the Kien Giang Border Guard Command to investigate and handle 100% of cases of fishing vessels seized by foreign countries.

The localities review the registration, registry, and issuance of fishing licenses, mark fishing vessels, update and adjust fishing vessel data on the national database of the fisheries sector, and urgently guide ship owners to carry out procedures for new registration for unregistered fishing vessels.

The Kien Giang Department of Fisheries Surveillance makes statistics and makes a list of fishing vessels without engagement in fishing and ships at high risk of violating IUU fishing to send them to the authorities for monitoring. The Management Board of Provincial Fishing Ports and Wharfs strengthens the supervision of fishing vessels entering and leaving the port and carries out the confirmation and issuance of certification of traceability for 100% of the dossiers of export shipments to the EU.

"Within one year from the date of issuing this notice, if the ship owner does not contact the Kien Giang Sub-Department of Fisheries or directly go to the Public Administration Service Center of Kien Giang province for instructions on how to apply for the issuance of the Fishing Vessel Technical Safety Certificate and Fishing License according to quota. The Kien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will proceed to delete the registration of fishing vessels from the Vietnam Vessel Registration Book according to the provisions of the Law on Fisheries 2017. This is a solution to perform well in the management of fishing vessels and at the same time contribute to overcome the "yellow card" warning of the European Commission", Mr. Quang Trong Thao recommended.