Sanctioning nearly 1 billion VND for fishing vessels violating in fishing activities

That is the case of Mr. Dinh Huu Chau, born in 1979, residing in Phuc Le commune, Thuy Nguyen district, working as a fisherman.

On the morning of October 6th, 2021, Mr. Chau was recorded at Bach Dang Border Guard checkpoint, Trang Cat Border Guard station for 8 administrative violations, as prescribed under Articles 20, 25, 33, and 38 - Decree No. 42/2014/ND-CP and Article 18 - Decree No. 115/2018/ND-CP.

After verifying the details of the case and at the request of the Border Guard Command, on November 5th, the People's Committee of Hai Phong City issued a decision to impose a fine of 892.5 million VND due to the administrative violations in the field of fisheries and food safety.

Mr. Chau's violations include: Using a fishing vessel with a length of 15-24 meters, an expired fishing license, to fish in Vietnamese waters, without journey monitoring equipment on a fishing vessel with length from 15-24 meters.

Failure to keep a fishing log for a fishing vessel with a maximum length of less than 24 meters as regulated, inadequately equipped with fishing vessel safety equipment for a fishing vessel with a maximum length of 12 meters or more during fishing activities.

The certificate of technical safety of fishing vessel has expired for fishing vessels with the largest length of 12m or more when fishing, the vessel captain does not have a diploma or certificate as prescribed, the owner of the fishing vessel does not buy insurance for crew from 5 to less than 10 crewmembers working on fishing vessels and producing and trading food without a certificate of food safety eligibility.

According to the Hai Phong Department of Fisheries, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has regularly and promptly directed its attached agencies and units and requested departments, branches and localities to cooperate in combating IUU fishing.

Regarding the patrol, inspection, control and handling of administrative violations, from January 1, 2021, relevant competent units have handled 101 cases, with a total fine amount of over 1.1 billion dong.

In which, the Hai Phong Border Guard Command and localities handled administrative violations of 16 vehicle owners, with a fine of VND 772.8 million for violations of insurance, national flags, permits...

The Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also sanctioned 25 vehicle owners for administrative violations with a total fine of nearly 400 million VND for violations such as: exploitation permit, failure to notify port, loss of journey monitoring equipment, overdue fishing licenses, fishing logs,...

At the same time, arrange human resources to perform the duties of representative office of fishing inspection and control, arrange 24/7 shore station to monitor fishing vessels operating at sea, promptly handle and notify for cases of loss of connection, operation in the wrong area, risk of violating foreign waters.