The south-central province of Binh Thuan has taken strong measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. (Photo: VNA) The province has considered the IUU fishing combat aleading important task, which requires the engagement of the entire politicalsystem, and leaders of departments, agencies and localities to uphold theirresponsibility.
The provincial Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment reported that since a case of a fishing boat with seven fishermenabroad encroaching upon foreign waters was detected earlier this year, no similarviolations have been found.
The result is attributable to the drastic andharmonious deployment of measures by competent agencies and localities, withdue attention paid to the vessels at a high risk of violating fishingregulations.
Officials at the fishing vessel monitoring centrehave worked round the clock, while all of the fishing vessels in the provincehave been under review, which figured out those without registrations andoperational licences to be punished in line with regulations.
As of September 29, all of the fishing boatsmeasuring at least 15 metres in length completed the installation of the vesselmonitoring system (VMS).
Competent forces have also inspected vessels andtheir output handled at fishing ports, as well as their seafood traceability.
The provincial fisheries sub-department said sincethe beginning of this year, it has handled 320 cases of violating fishingregulations and imposed fines worth more than 2.9 billion VND (118,959 USD).
Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s CommitteeNguyen Hong Hai said Binh Thuan will continue seriously implementing tasks andsolutions against IUU fishing in the time ahead, and prepare for the fourthinspection by the EC this month, joining national efforts in removing the“yellow card” warning on Vietnamese seafood.
The EC delegation, expected to includerepresentatives from the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries(DG MARE) and the EC Delegation in Vietnam, will come to Vietnam for the IUUfishing issue from October 10-18./.
VNA
