Recommend criminal penalties for fishing in foreign waters

Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Party Committee has just held a Conference summarizing 5 years of implementing Resolution No. 12-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on implementing solutions to prevent and stop fishing vessels and fishermen from violating foreign waters to exploit aquatic resources illegally (abbreviated: Resolution 12).

IUU fishing violations: Sharp reduced but not gone

Statistics from the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development show that as of October 2023, Ba Ria - Vung Tau has a total of 4,660 fishing boats. Of these, there are 2,771 offshore fishing vessels over 15m and 647 offshore fishing vessels from 12-15m. There are 1,242 coastal fishing vessels from 6m to under 12m.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, said that immediately after the Provincial Party Standing Committee issued Resolution 12, The Provincial People's Committee issued an Action Plan to implement Resolution 12 including 13 groups of tasks and major solutions with 24 specific tasks. These tasks are assigned to relevant departments, branches, branches and localities to organize implementation.

“The Provincial People's Committee has also signed coordination regulations with the Navy Region 2 Command, Coast Guard Region 3 and 4 Commands; Provincial Border Guard (BPD), Fisheries Surveillance Detachment No. 2 to strengthen patrol and control activities at sea, promptly detect and prevent fishing vessels and fishermen showing signs of violating foreign waters. At the same time, we support fishing boats and fishermen to fish legally and handle unexpected rescue situations", Mr Vinh said.

After implementing Resolution No. 12, the situation of fishing vessels and fishermen in the province violating seafood exploitation in foreign waters has decreased significantly over the years. From August 2022 until now, there has been no incident of fishing vessels violating foreign waters.

After 5 years of implementing Resolution No. 12 (from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the present): there have been 32 cases/67 fishing boats/573 fishermen arrested by foreign authorities. As a result, the number of violating vessels decreased by 68.8% compared to the 5 years 2014 - 2018 (215 vessels/1,686 fishermen).

From 2019 to June 2023, departments and authorities have sanctioned 587 fishing vessels for administrative violations, a total amount of VND 14.42 billion, along with many additional forms of punishment such as: deprivation of license, captain's certificate, deprivation of the right to use fishing license...

However, Colonel Le Ba Quan, Deputy Commander and chief of Staff of Naval Region 2 Command said, there is still a situation where Ba Ria - Vung Tau fishing vessels appear in border areas, crossing the border to illegally fish in foreign waters, the trip monitor is not turned on and the fishing vessel does not have documents but still operates offshore fishing activities. "Violations against IUU fishing are becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex", Colonel Quan expressed concern.

In early March 2024, the Navy Region 2 fishery surveillance ship discovered 2 fishing boats in Phuoc Tinh commune (Long Dien district) with their cruise monitoring equipment turned off, operating 8 nautical miles in Indonesian waters. These two ships resisted and fled. "There is enough basis to prosecute illegal fishing in foreign waters of these two vessels", Colonel Le Ba Quan informed.

Need hasher sanction

Mr. Nguyen Van Tho, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized, that Resolution 12 requires preventing and stopping fishing vessels violating fishing in foreign waters, not reducing or restricting it. Recently, the province has not been able to completely control the situation of fishing vessels fishing in foreign waters and is not completing its mission. Therefore, measures must be more drastic and strong.

Faced with the information that fishing vessels without sufficient licenses are still operating at sea, Colonel Tran Ngoc Tang, Deputy Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command, said that border guards at fishing ports strictly check the activities of fishing vessels entering and leaving the port. Fishing vessels must have complete documents before leaving the port. The Provincial Border Guard Command has assigned the responsibilities to the station chief and placement chief, if a violation of IUU occurs related to their responsibilities and duties, they will be jointly responsible.

“However, there are situations where fishing vessels violate regulations against IUU fishing after leaving port and accept large fines but did not present documents for inspection by law enforcement agencies at sea", Colonel Tran Ngoc Tang informed.

To serve as a further deterrent, Colonel Le Ba Quan proposed criminal prosecution of individuals who intentionally violate fishing in foreign waters instead of current administrative penalties. 

“That is enough to serve as a deterrent and set an example. Some provinces have applied it, Ba Ria- - Vung Tau should also conduct research and criminally handle these subjects", Colonel Quan proposed. 

Sharing the same opinion as above, Colonel Bui Van Thao, Director of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Police said, there is currently not enough legal basis to apply criminal prosecution to those subjects. Mr Thao hopes there will soon be guidance on applying new penalties for a more effective deterrent. 

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, also praised the functional agencies, departments and localities for doing a good job in preventing fishing vessels and fishermen from fishing in foreign waters. There have been no cases of violations arrested by foreign authorities from August 2022 to the present. However, there are still 4/6 goals of Resolution 12 that have not been completed.