Total force to remove the IUU 'yellow card'

In recent times, leaders of Quang Binh province have drastically directed departments, branches, and localities to implement key solutions to combat IUU fishing. In particular, the recommendation on completing the legal framework has been fully implemented by the province, in line with the situation against IUU fishing in the area.

Mr. Le Van Loi, Deputy Director of the Quang Binh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that, at present, there are still some fishing vessels operating without fishing licenses. The recording and submission of fishing logs have not met the requirements. Fishing vessel owners have not made records at sea and submitted them to the fishing port management board according to regulations, or some ship owners only record when coming ashore and submit logs when required.

According to the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries, the province has more than 3,500 registered fishing vessels from 6m and above, accounting for 95% of the total fleet, and 3,443 licensed fishing vessels. Quang Binh has 116 fishing vessels with a length of over 15m that are required to install cruise monitoring equipment.

Up to now, over 1,000 ships have installed cruise monitoring equipment as required. Mr. Le Ngoc Linh, Director of the Sub-Department of Fisheries, said that the remaining ships had reported suspending fishing activities for different reasons.

"We have informed the localities with the ships that have reported suspending fishing activities to coordinate with the Provincial Border Guard Force to monitor these vehicles. At the same time, we have also revoked the fishing licenses of the ships that have not yet installed monitoring equipment," said Mr. Le Ngoc Linh.

In reality, there are still many cases of fishing vessels crossing the border at sea and losing connection with shore stations, but the inspection, verification, and handling are still slow, long-lasting, and have difficulties and troubles. Many civilian fishing vessels setting sail not only do not comply with the general regulations but also lack the mandatory conditions when leaving the wharf.

During the maritime patrol in May, the Specialized Inspection Force under the Quang Binh Sub-Department of Fisheries discovered many fishing vessels violating errors such as lack of certificates of captain and chief engineer, wrong fishing route, and inadequate safety equipment (life jacket) for fishermen. The status of trawlers fishing illegally in coastal waters still exists.

According to Mr. Le Ngoc Linh, there are many reasons leading to shortcomings and limitations in the work against IUU fishing, mainly concentrated on some reasons such as: the sense of law observance of ship owners and captains is not good because some ship owners and captains intentionally disconnected or failed to maintain the operation of cruise monitoring equipment to evade the supervision of functional units.

Some localities have not been really drastic in the work of combating IUU fishing and have not promoted the role of commune-level authorities in performing their duties. The inspection and handling of violations in coastal waters still have limitations.

Another difficulty is that the resources to combat IUU fishing are inadequate. In Quang Binh, a representative office of fisheries inspection and control was established and put into operation with shift staff, leading to many difficulties in arranging time to perform duties.

Up until now, Quang Binh has not established a Provincial Fisheries Surveillance Force to strengthen the inspection, control, and handling of violations. Almost all activities of patrolling, controlling, and handling violations of fishing vessels at sea only "rely" on the Specialized Inspection Force of the Sub-Department of Fisheries. However, according to Mr. Le Ngoc Linh, due to the lack of staff, this force can only arrange for five people (including one civil servant). However, according to Mr. Le Ngoc Linh, due to the lack of staff, this force can only arrange for five people (including one civil servant).

In efforts with the whole country to remove the EC’s "yellow card", Quang Binh is focusing on implementing key tasks and solutions, such as preventing fishing vessels and fishermen from violating illegal fishing in foreign waters; completing 100% of the registration, marking of fishing vessels, issuance of fishing licenses, and installation of vessel monitoring equipment (VMS) according to regulations; and updating 100% of fishing vessel data into the national fisheries database (VNFishbase).