Fishing vessels at Quy Nhon Port in the south-central coastal province of Binh Dinh. (Photo: VNA) Binh Dinh (VNA)– The Party Committee and People’s Committee of the south-central coastal provinceof Binh Dinh have been taking drastic measures to fight illegal, unreported,and unregulated (IUU) fishing since 2018.
Besides directions and inspections, the provincial People’sCommittee has made prevention of fishing vessels’ violation of foreign waters a criterion to assess the performance of localauthorities. Heads of authorities at thecommune and district levels have to take responsibility if violations aredetected.
The province also established an inter-sectoral inspection group toaddress the violations.
Regarding the installation of vessel monitoring system (VMS), Binh Dinh offered financial support for fishing vessels' ownersin purchasing and installing the equipment.
Up to now, the province has provided more than 30 billion VND to a total of 2,966 fishing vessels for the installation. As many as 3,258 out of 3,292 fishing vessels with alength of 15m or more in the province have installed VMS.
Binh Dinh currently has three fishing ports - Quy Nhon,De Gi, and Tam Quan – with sufficient systems to verify the origin of fisheryproducts.
From the beginning of 2023, the province has certified the origin for more than 2,513 tonnes of fish of all kinds, an increase of74% over the same period in 2022.
Nguyen Tuan Thanh, Vice Chairman of Binh Dinh provincialPeople's Committee, said that the provincial committee has strongly directeddepartments, branches, and local authorities in promoting communication on IUUfishing, violations, and punishments.
However, he admitted that violations were still reported.
He said in the coming time, the provincial People's Committee willconsider developing a policy to support fishermen who are at high risk ofviolating foreign waters to change jobs. Mechanisms and policies will also be devised to subsidize satellite connection fees for fishing vehicles to maintain the operationof VMS.
The province will soon complete the registration, issuance offishing licenses, installation of VMS, and update fishing vessel data into thenational fisheries database, Thanh said.
Binh Dinh province now has 5,667 fishing vessels with a lengthof 6 metres or more, and over 40,900workers engaged in fishing activities. Its annual fishery production in recent yearshas surpassed 250,000 tonnes. In the first six months of 2023, theproduction reached more than 135,900 tonnes, over 3% higher than that of thesame period last year./.
