Removing the IUU yellow card: 1 month to decide on action in 6 years

On April 8, the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), led by Minister Le Minh Hoan, had a working session with the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee on the province's control and prevention of IUU fishing. The survey and actual inspection by MARD's delegation are implemented in the context that Vietnam is about to welcome the EC's inspection delegation and expects to remove the IUU yellow card.

Drastic but there is still a lot of work that must be done

Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee, said that in recent times, the province has coordinated with agencies, branches, and law enforcement forces at sea to monitor and process information on fishing vessels losing connection and crossing maritime boundaries.

The situation of fishing vessels violating illegal seafood exploitation in foreign waters has been controlled. Since August 2022, the province has not had a violating fishing vessel arrested by a foreign country. In addition, the province has also completed reviewing the entire number of registered fishing vessels and updated 100% of them in the national fleet database.

"Up to now, the province has overcome and handled two shortcomings that the EC's inspection delegation pointed out during the 4^th inspection in October 2023. That is to punish the owners of fishing vessels without an exploitation license and losing cruise monitoring connection but still operating at sea with a sum of more than VND 1.3 billion and fine 8 fishing vessels with unknown registration numbers at Phuoc Hiep port, Long Dien district," Mr. Vinh reported.

As for the "3 No" fleet, the Provincial People's Committee has reviewed, made statistics, and agreed that there are currently 1,081 vessels in the whole province, and branches and localities have issued and drawn temporary numbers for them to manage. As of March 31, 595 "3 No" fishing vessels have been issued and drawn temporary numbers, reaching 55%. The remainder is expected to be completed this April.

Although there are positive changes compared to the past, Mr. Nguyen Van Tho, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, admitted that up to now, Ba Ria-Vung Tau still has some backlogs, which were also pointed out by MARD's working delegation at the meeting.

Specifically, the number of fishing vessels docking at designated ports and the rate of monitoring seafood output through the port have only reached 25%. The work of traceability will not be guaranteed because fishermen's fishing logs are not accurate, memoirs are kept, and fish species names are not recorded.

Besides, the work of sanctioning violations of cruise monitoring connection loss is not yet thorough. Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the Department of Fisheries, requested the province continue to verify and investigate to thoroughly handle cases where vessels lose cruise monitoring connections for more than 6 hours without reporting their location. Especially for fishing vessels of 24m or more, it is requested to sanction vessels that do not meet the conditions but still participate in activities at sea.

According to the assessment of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, although the provincial leaders have closely directed, in the past 6 months, the province's implementation of IUU requirements still only reached 6/10 points.

"The reason is that the rate of administrative sanctions is still low; traceability is also not achieved when it is still unable to manage the fleet docking at the port and the output of seafood unloaded through the port and the electronic fishing log is not yet available," said Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.

Faced with many unsettled tasks in the work of removing the IUU yellow card, Minister Le Minh Hoan suggested that the province soon overcome remaining shortcomings and join with the whole country to remove the IUU yellow card because the province has a very high ability of being inspected by the EC’s delegation in May 2024.

Last opportunity

"This is the last opportunity to remove the IUU yellow card for Vietnam's seafood industry. The remaining 1 month is the decisive time for the journey of more than 6 years of being tightened by the IUU yellow card," Minister Le Minh Hoan continuously emphasized.

The Minister also requested localities, departments, and branches to strengthen inspection work as well as encourage fishermen and fishing ports to perform well in the fight against IUU fishing. Increase action in the next peak month, including increasing dissemination for fishermen and fishing vessels at high risk of IUU violations and closely following these fishermen door-to-door.

The Minister also wishes fishermen and businesses nationwide to understand the story of fighting IUU fishing to do well and not let bad objects incite them to go fishing in foreign waters.

The task of combating IUU fishing not only carries out an economic task but also protects the sovereignty of the sea and islands. This is also an obligation to the Fatherland during the current urgent period to join the whole country in removing the IUU yellow card.

Mr. Tran Quang Hung, Director of Cat Lo Fishing Port (Vung Tau city), said that the port strictly enforces the inspection of fishing vessels entering and leaving the port and strictly manages the output unloaded through the port, ensuring traceability. Only fishing vessels that meet the conditions outlined in the regulations are allowed to depart and dock. However, in recent years, the number of vessels docking at the port and the amount of seafood unloaded through the port have been decreasing.

Therefore, Mr. Hung proposed that MARD deploy synchronous anti-IUU fishing work in localities to avoid the situation where fishing vessels avoid the fishing port with strict implementation and dock at fishing ports with loose implementation.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ngoc (fisherman in Ward 2, Vung Tau city) said that fishermen are the most severely affected when Vietnam receives the EC's yellow card. Most fishermen are also aware of good practices against IUU fishing, which benefits them. "We also recommend that functional agencies strictly punish fishing vessels that violate IUU fishing. Every day, we understand better than anyone else that seafood resources are depleting," he said.

Seafood processing and export businesses are also subject to the many impacts of the EC's "yellow card." Even though they do not directly export to Europe, intermediaries also require traceability.

“Other markets outside Europe also have similar requirements to the EC in proving the origin of seafood and green certification. Therefore, to be able to export to other countries, we have to buy raw materials at very high prices. Compliance with the EC's principles is no longer private; we need to join hands to overcome difficulties," said Mr. Dao Quoc Tuan, General Director of Tu Hai Co., Ltd.

Currently, Vietnam has more than 90,000 fishing vessels at sea. This number is too large compared to other countries and too thick compared to Vietnam's sovereign waters.

Therefore, Minister Le Minh Hoan proposed that 28 provinces and cities bordering the sea restructure the industry in the direction of gradually reducing the fishing fleet and gradually shifting fishermen to go ashore to do business and work in other professions. This is also an opportunity for the province to look back at itself and make positive changes.

“If we do well in the upcoming inspection, the EC will take Vietnam as a typical example of positive transformation in combating IUU fishing. From there, the EC is ready to support resources to help Vietnam build a green, transparent, responsible, and sustainable ocean economy," said Minister Le Minh Hoan.