The authorities in Nghe An province recently held a meeting to assess efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
After more than 6 years of addressing warnings from the European Commission, Nghe An province has made efforts and achieved some positive results. Specifically, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has 3,462 fishing vessels, of which 2,565 are required to be registered. As of April 30, 2024, the vessel registration rate reached 90.37%; Fishing licenses reached 95.38%, food safety certificates reached 86.18%; inspections reached 78.3%; and VMS installation reached 96.95%.
Nghe An province has 4 fishing ports, 3 of which meet the conditions for seafood origin verification. The port management board and inter-branch teams have properly conducted inspections and monitoring of fishing vessels and seafood output through the ports, with increasing strictness.
In 2023, Nghe An’s functional forces handled 161 administrative violation cases, with a total fine of VND 714.5 million. In the first 4 months of 2024, 31 subjects/31 means were fined a total of VND 490.3 million, and 12 people had their captain’s certificates revoked.
However, there are still a number of fishing vessels in the province that do not meet the conditions for fishing operations, and there is a lack of close monitoring measures: 247 unregistered vessels, 107 unlicensed vessels, 342 vessels with expired inspections, 33 vessels without VMS, and 116 vessels that have lost VMS connection for more than 6 months.
There are still fishing vessels operating in offshore waters that do not dock at designated ports but often unload goods and seafood products at spontaneous fishing ports. The handling progress of the agencies and local governments is slow. Especially the handling of the group of vessels that lost connection at sea in 2023 is still within the time limit and validity, and the effectiveness of the People’s Committees of the districts and towns does not meet the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Immediately after the above meeting, the Provincial People’s Committee issued Official Letter No. 354/TB-UBND, concluding the direction of Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, to implement the goal of removing the “Yellow Card” with the whole country and well prepare the contents of working with the EC’s Inspection Delegation for the 5th time, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee assigned: Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to preside over and coordinate with the Border Command. Provincial Police, local authorities urgently review all data of fishing vessels, including deleted registered vessels; ensure that the data must be accurate, match, and be consistent with the data on the national VNFishbase system…
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shall make a list of fishing vessels that have not been granted fishing licenses, vessels with expired inspections, and vessels that have not been equipped with monitoring equipment; provide the list to the People’s Committees of districts/towns and Border Posts and Stations for guidance to vessel owners in completing procedures and handling violations according to regulations.
On the other hand, direct the Fisheries Sub-Department to organize 24/24-hour shifts to effectively exploit and use the Vessel Monitoring System to closely manage the operation of fishing vessels at sea. Provide a list of vessels that have lost VMS connection to the Provincial Border Command and People’s Committees of districts to investigate, verify and handle violations in a thorough manner according to regulations.
Direct the port management board and inter-branch teams to seriously and properly implement inspections and controls of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, monitor 100% of output at the site; inspect and control 100% of fishing vessels with a maximum length of 24m or more entering the port. Deploy and guide fishermen and enterprises to implement electronic seafood traceability (eCDT); update full data on national databases VNFishbase, eCDT, VMS, administrative violation handling database, and Googlesheets of the Directorate of Fisheries.
The Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee also requested the Provincial Border Command to speed up the progress of investigation, verification, clarification of subjective and objective reasons, consolidate the dossier to handle violations according to regulations for vessels that lost VMS connection from January 25, 2024, to date according to the announcement of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Provincial Border Command directs the Stations and Border Posts to strengthen the inspection and control of fishing vessels entering and leaving the estuary, ensuring that 100% of the vessels are marked and numbered as prescribed. For vessels that do not meet the operating conditions, do not allow them to leave the estuary for fishing and request the vessel owners to remove fishing gear, equipment, and tools from the vessels.
