Fishermen prepare for a new fishing trip (Photo: VNA) Phu Yen (VNA) – The south central province of PhuYen is taking urgent measures to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)fishing activities, as part of the national effort to tackle the European Commission’s IUU yellow card.
Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s CommitteeTran Huu The said educational campaigns are an important measure to enhancelocal fishermen’s awareness about IUU.
The province will intensify inspections of fishingactivities at sea and in ports, take strict punishment against violations of regulationson fishing and ship registrations and management.
According to Nguyen Tri Phuong, deputy head of the provincialDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development, fishery inspectors havecoordinated with the border guard force to keep watch on fishing boats, inspectships’ records on fishing, and issue certifications for origins of seafood.
Phu Yen is working on a fishing database which willintegrate information on local fishing boats, the registration and licensing offishing vessels, fishing sector’s labour and activities of local fishing ports.
[Vietnamese boats’ overseas illegal fishing down significantly]
The provincial border guard force has undertakenmeasures to curb illegal fishing in foreign waters, such as monitoring vessels’activities, keeping close contact with fishing boats at sea and encouragingvessels’ owners and captains to sign commitments not to violating othercountries’ waters.
Vietnam received a “yellow-card” from theEuropean Commission (EC) because of its failure to meet standards over IUUfishing last year, and the country has been offered the opportunity to takemeasures to rectify the situation within six months.
The EU will assess Vietnam’s effortsto fight IUU fishing in April.
The "yellow card" isfollowed by a "green card" if issues are resolved or a "redcard" if they are not. A “red card” can lead to a trade ban on fisheryproducts.
On December 13, 2017, PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued Directive 45/CT-TTg on some urgent tasks andsolutions following the EC’s warning.
Many coastal localities of Vietnam have alsotaken actions to end IUU fishing.-VNA
VNA
