Ben Tre tightens handling of illegal fishing hinh anh 1Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Ben Tre (VNA) – Secretary of Ben Tre province’s Party Committee Le Duc Tho asked localities and competent forces to strictly handle violations of  fishing regulations at a meeting on fighting the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on October 14.

The Mekong Delta province has taken an array of measures, in line with the government's resolve to have the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” removed as early as possible.

Ben Tre has stepped up coordination with information and communion agencies to raise public awareness of relevant regulations.

Competent agencies and local authorities have kept a close watch on the registration of vessels, the installation of monitoring devices and the operation of local fishing boats at sea, especially large boats going deep sea fishing, and strictly handled violations.

For boats that register in Ben Tre but operate in other localities, Tho required coordination with those localities in supervision work.

He also urged the coastal guard force to boost inspections to prevent any boats not meeting regulations from going to sea, and  quickly detect and punish boats violating foreign waters, fishing illegally, and or involving in the organisation of illegal exit from and entry into Vietnam.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, up to 98.8 percent of fishing boats meeting requirements in Ben Tre have installed monitoring devices.

Since the beginning of this year, competent forces have found seven fishing boats violating foreign waters. Four of them were fined a total 3.2 billion VND (140,600 USD), while papers for punishment for the three others are being completed. /.

VNA