HCM City (VNA) — More than 500 fishing vessels in Ho Chi Minh City have been affected after the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) temporarily suspended the transmission and synchronisation of vessel monitoring system (VMS) data from its VNPT-VSS network to the Directorate of Fisheries’ data centre on November 7, according to municipal Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance Sub-Department.
VNPT attributed the disruption to a satellite malfunction that interrupted signal transmission, causing instability in the VMS equipment of many fishing boats. Of the affected vessels, more than 400 currently operating offshore were directly impacted, while the rest remain docked.
Many fishermen expressed concern that the incident could cause their vessels to be mistakenly flagged as violating mandatory VMS regulations, even though the cause lies beyond their control.
A boat owner from Long Hai commune said prolonged loss of data connection could lead to vessels being classified as unreported or unregulated operations — a serious risk as Vietnam strives to have the European Commission (EC)’s yellow card on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing lifted.
To maintain operations, some fishermen have been forced to switch their tracking devices to other service providers, increasing costs.
Le Thi Ngọt, a resident of Tam Thang ward, said her family owns 13 fishing vessels and had spent more than 364 million VND (13,842 USD) installing VNPT’s devices. Following the outage, she replaced all of them with Viettel equipment at an additional cost of 286 million VND.
According to Mac Thi Nga, head of the municipal Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance Sub-Department, more than 100 vessels currently at sea have yet to return to shore to replace their equipment.
In response, the municipal Department of Agriculture and Environment has requested all VMS suppliers in the city to urgently address shortcomings in installation and operation to ensure fisheries monitoring complies with government regulations and supports efforts to remove the EC’s yellow card warning.
The department said some VMS devices still lack user manuals or contain inaccurate or incomplete owner information, hindering management and complicating traceability — a key requirement for lifting the EC’s warning.
It has urged providers including Binh Anh, Bach Khoa GPS, Viettel, VNPT, Vishipel, Zunibal, Khanh Hoi and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to promptly review and update all device and vessel owner data on the national fisheries monitoring system.
Suppliers were also asked to provide lists of devices meeting technical standards under Government Decree No. 37/2024/NĐ-CP and to coordinate with the Sub-Department in supporting fishermen with technical issues or satellite interruptions.
The official noted that providers must not arbitrarily disconnect devices while vessels are operating at sea to ensure compliance with regulations and continuous monitoring./.
