Vessel monitoring device suppliers asked to fix errors

On June 3, the Directorate of Fisheries under Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked companies that supply monitoring devices for fishing boats to strictly comply with relevant regulations after VAN reported errors of the devices.

Official Letter No. 843 signed by Nguyen Quang Hung, Deputy Director of the General Department of Fisheries, stated that, according to reports by the VAN, in the past time, a number of devices have frequently malfunctioned as signal cannot be transmitted, operation is unstable, battery is hot, which result in loss of connection with the vessel monitoring system.

In addition, the supply units have not promptly repaired when the devices were faulty or damaged. In some cases, the suppliers took the devices to fix but the fixing last months.Many units have not paid attention to the post-installation care.

After the installation, it is difficult for fishermen to contact with them for fixing the device.

The Directorate of Fisheries also affirmed that many suppliers have not fully fulfilled their responsibilities, leading to difficulties in management and affecting the fishing production.

Therefore, the Directorate of Fisheries requested the suppliers to urgently handle the shortcomings.In addition, they were asked to work closely with the Directorate and fisheries management agencies of the provinces to determine the cause of the disconnection at sea.

They were required to assist fishermen in fix errored devices that they provided.

In particular, the Directorate of Fisheries will send an inspection team to assess the suppliers' fixing. Violations of regulations in law enforcement on vessel monitoring devices for fishing boats will be strictlt handled.

From May 31, VAN published a series of articles: Devices to monitor fisherman's journey - Barriers to remove "yellow card", on which fishing vessels saw errored monitoring device and the repairment was delayed for long, seriously affecting the fishing activities of fishermen and the efforts in removing the European Commission (EC)'s yellow card for Vietnam.