Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Da Nang (VNA) – Authorities of the central localities of Da Nang and Quang Binh are accelerating inspections and control of local fisheries activities to join national efforts in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, towards having the European Commission (EC)'s “yellow card” warning against Vietnam's seafood exports lifted.
The People’s Committee of Da Nangcity has issued document under which departments, sectors, relevant localities and local fisheriesmanagement units have been ordered to continue to concertedlyand seriously implement a plan for preventing andcombat IUU fishing in the2023-2025 period.
It requested relevant agenciesto step up communications activities and organise training courses to update fishermenon relevant regulations, thus timely detecting and handling violations relatingto IUU fishing.
Inspection andsupervision of organisations, individuals, and units directly involved in the taskof combating IUU fishing have been strengthened.
As scheduled, an EC delegation will have working sessions with local authorities from May 23-29,focusing on inspecting issues relate to controlling fishing vessels' infringement of foreign waters, managing the entry and exit of fishing vessels and their operation at sea and the installation of vessel monitoring system for fishing boats, and thecertification of seafood shipments exported to Europe.
The delegation willwork with one or two enterprises exporting seafood to Europe to check the certificationof raw materials exploited in Vietnamese waters and imported materials forproducing seafood for export to Europe.
In the central provinceof Quang Binh, the local sub-department for fisheries coordinated with the provincialborder guards in the sea to deploy patrols and control activities at sea,thus thoroughly preventing IUU fishing activities in an attempt to lift the EC's “yellow card” warning against Vietnamese seafood.
Le Van Thao, deputy head of the legal inspection office of the sub-department, said that the patrols have contributed to calling on local fishermen to complywith provisions of the Fisheries Law, and preventing IUU fishing.
According Thao, a series of measures have been implemented to combatIUU fishing, focusing on strictly controlling the operation of fishing vessels.
So far, as many as 3,544fishing vessels with a length of 6m and above have registered, reaching 94.7%;and 1,128 boats with a length of 15m or more installed with vessel monitoring systems,equivalent to 94.8% of the total./.
