Binh Thuan (VNA) – The People’s Committee of the south-central province of Binh Thuan on July 1 asked agencies to strengthen supervision of fishing vessels that are likely to infringe on foreign waters as one of its drastic measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Local agencies and localities have identified 173 fishing vessels with a high risk of violating foreign waters, including 13 in Tuy Phong district, 18 in Phan Thiet city, two in Ham Thuan Nam district, 48 in La Gi township, seven in Ham Tan district and 85 in Phu Quy island district.
They include those operating in fishing or logistics services in areas where many fishing vessels violate foreign waters; off-shore fishing vessels that frequently lose vessel monitoring system (VMS) connection in adjacent areas or for less than 6 hours repeatedly in adjacent areas without reporting, and unknown reasons; and fishing vessels that have found to violate foreign waters or have crew members, especially the captain, who have ever violated foreign waters and arrested.
According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, authorities have detected 2,515 vessels with “3 NOs” (no registration, no examination, no licence). The province’s Sub-department of Fisheries has granted temporary registration to 2,348 of them.
To date, Binh Thuan has completed installing VMS for all operating fishing vessels. Authorities have also tightened management and supervision of fishing vessels that did not installed the device or stopped operating due to damage and civil disputes./.
