Khanh Hoa (VNA) – The south-central province of Khanh Hoa has been taking measuresto fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing andpreparing for a visit of an inspection team from the European Commission (EC).
Up to now,all data on fishing vessels in the province has been updated on the nationalfishing vessel management system. Up to 99.8% of the fishing vessels in the province havebeen licenced for fishing and 96.9% of the vessels have been granted certificatesof food safety and hygiene. All fishing vessels with a length of 6m or morehave been marked following legal regulations.
Up to 99.2% ofthe 679 vessels with a length of 15m or above operating in offshore waters have been installed vessel monitoring devices.
Since thebeginning of this year, a total of 3,394 vessels traversing via ports have beenstrictly examined. More than 5,970 tonnes of seafood were inspected whentransported via ports; 58 batches with an output of more than 2,000 tonneshad their origin verified; and 52 batches with an output of 616 tonnesreceived aquaculture exploitation certificates.
However, onevessel and six crew members have been arrested by Malaysian authorities.
In theprovince, 137 vessels are not connected to the vessel monitoring system (VMS),which causes difficulties in management; while five vessels have not installed vesselmonitoring devices.
Toovercome the difficulties, the provincial Department of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment requested the provincial Border Guard Command verify and handlecases of fishing vessels losing VMS connections. Relevant units and agencies areasked to tighten control of vessels that enter/leave fishing ports.
Vesselsthat fail to meet regulations will not be allowed to enter or leave the ports.
Accordingto the Khanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, to strengthen thefight against IUU fishing, especially to end the situation of fishing vesselsviolating foreign waters, the provincial steering committee for combating IUU fishingrequires departments, branches, and localities to continue to strengthencommunication activities, especially to owners and captains of offshore fishingvessels./.