Binh Thuan (VNA) – The south-central province of Binh Thuan will take drastic measures to end the state in which fishing boats loss their vessel monitoring system (VMS) connection at sea in a move to clamp down on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Chien, competent agencies and localities have been urged to step up communications work to raise fishermen’s awareness of VMS regulations and instruct ship owners and captains how to install and use the VMS software on mobile phones so as to keep close tabs on fishing boats’ monitoring device information.
Besides, they are ordered to enhance direction and coordination in managing, operating and processing the VMS data while reviewing all violations of VMS rules from the outset of the year and handling them in accordance with regulations, he said.
The VMS devices have been installed on all of the 1,943 fishing vessels from 15 metres in length in Binh Thuan province.
Over the past time, the provincial Department of Fisheries have worked around the clock to supervise, detect and handle fishing boats losing contact and crossing the fishing boundaries in a timely fashion.
Since the beginning of the year, 61 fishing boats measuring between 15 and 24 metres have been found staying disconnected to the VMS device for more than 10 days. A total fine of 100 million VND (over 4,000 USD) were meted out to four violation cases./.
