Quang Ninh removes '3 no' fishing vessels and strictly handles IUU exploitation

Strictly handle fishing vessels violating IUU exploitation

Currently, the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee is tightening operations on '3 no' fishing vessels, including no registration, no license, and no inspection, to strengthen management of seafood exploitation activities.

Accordingly, the Quang Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched inspections to ensure compliance with legal regulations on fisheries for fishing vessels and to handle and punish illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels operating in the province's waters.

Through inspection work, the majority of ship owners have been aware of strictly complying with legal regulations on the exploitation of aquatic resources. However, there are still some errors arising during the inspection process, such as exploitation not according to the registration license and some expired documents that have not been added.

For these cases, the working delegation made records and reminders, continued to disseminate and guide, and required vehicle owners to quickly complete necessary procedures and strictly implement fishing according to license.

Functional agencies regularly inspect, control, and strictly handle violations of the Law on Fisheries and violations of IUU exploitation in local coastal waters; handle at the highest level ship owners and captains with illegal exploitation, no registration, no inspection, no installation of cruise monitoring equipment, or installed fishing vessels but loss of cruise monitoring signals at sea.

Mr. Do Dinh Minh, Director of the Sub-Department of Fisheries, said that installing equipment to connect to the offshore fishing vessel monitoring system aims to monitor the cruise. Thereby creating a basis for functional agencies to inspect, trace, and verify fishing vessels' processes of seafood exploitation at sea.

"This is also a mandatory regulation that the province is focusing on handling to overcome warnings from the European Commission (EC) against IUU fishing in Quang Ninh," emphasized Mr. Minh.

Since 2018, localities and functional forces in the province have discovered 9,393 cases of violation; handled administrative violations with a total amount of over VND 61 billion; confiscated and destroyed 46 fishing vessels and evidence of violation (electric shock, trawl net, eight-sign cage); and organized to prevent and chase away 469 fishing vessels and rafts of foreign fishermen violating sovereignty and illegally fishing.

Decided to remove the EC 'yellow card'

On August 22, MARD's delegation, led by Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien, had a working session with the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee on the implementation of the work against IUU fishing.

Immediately after the EC's recommendations on IUU, the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee issued one resolution, one action program, and two thematic directives to lead and direct solutions. The Provincial People's Committee has established a Provincial Steering Committee on IUU Fishing headed by the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee in charge of agriculture and issued 130 documents (plans, decisions, and official dispatches) guiding and directing departments, branches, and localities to implement solutions on IUU.

Accordingly, the province focuses on contents, including completing registration, inspection, issuing fishing licenses, issuing certificates, committing to food safety, and updating data on Vnfishbase. Opening peak patrols, handling, confiscating, and banning circulation of all fishing vessels violating IUU. The heads of party committees, district and commune-level governments, and relevant functional units are responsible for the results of implementing and overcoming the EC's "yellow card" warning at localities and units.

The EU's four groups of recommendations for Vietnam's exploited seafood products include: Completing the legal framework; Managing fleet and controlling fishing vessels; Controlling and tracing the origin of exploited seafood; and Enforcing the law. As of now, Quang Ninh province has basically overcome the four groups of recommendations mentioned above.

Specifically, the Provincial People's Committee has issued 13 documents and regulations on management, assignment, and decentralization of fishing vessel management; handling evidence of violations; protecting aquatic resources, and establishing points to inspect and control fishing vessels and monitor exploited seafood output.

In order to prevent IUU exploitation, Quang Ninh has soon perfected and adjusted the planning of the agricultural, forestry, and fishery sectors according to the Provincial Planning for the 2021–2030 period, with a vision to 2050. Along with that, a series of solutions have been implemented, such as establishing control points for fishing vessels and seafood output in key fishing localities; registering and granting temporary licenses for fishing vessels that do not yet meet the conditions for official registration to put them into management; and applying information technology in fishing vessel management and seafood exploitation.

Quang Ninh province now has 5,556 fishing vessels. To overcome the EC's recommendations in seafood exploitation, the province has focused on overcoming the shortcomings raised by the EC in order to join the whole country in removing the "yellow card." Currently, over 4,247 fishing vessels with a length of 6 m or more have updated data on Vnfishbase; 100% of fishing vessels with a length of 15 m or more have installed with cruise monitoring equipment (245 vessels); and 100% of fishing vessels with a length of 12 m to under 15 m have signed a food safety commitment.

Mr. Vu Van Dien, Standing Vice Chairman of the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee, shared that Quang Ninh still has some limitations in combating IUU exploitation. The province will comprehensively absorb the opinions of the working delegation. From there, deploy to each locality and each unit to quickly remove the EC's "yellow card."

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien highly appreciated Quang Ninh's efforts in combating IUU fishing.

"However, Quang Ninh still has limitations that need to be quickly overcome. Fishing vessels must comply with regulations on cruise connection equipment and paint colors. Fishing vessel logs need to be fully recorded, and functional forces need to be resolute in handling violations. The province needs to identify combating IUU exploitation as an important, urgent, long-term task and the responsibility of the entire political system, contributing to protecting aquatic resources and island sovereignty," Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized.

According to functional agencies, activities that violate regulations on exploitation and resource protection are becoming increasingly sophisticated, making it difficult to detect and arrest violations. Fishing vessels operating in offshore areas have been installed with cruise monitoring equipment, but the disconnection still occurs, affecting monitoring, warning, and preventing violating fishing vessels.