Relevant forces well coordinate in settling IUU violations

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Greater efforts are needed to promptly detect, prevent, handle violations related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially acts of brokerage to bring Vietnamese fishing vessels to foreign waters for illegal fishing, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Fisheries (DoF) has said.

Speaking at a conference held by the DoF's Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance Department (VFRS) to review its performance in 2022 and map out plans for implementing tasks in 2023, Nguyen Quang Hung, deputy general director of the DoF and director of the VFRS, asked the agency’s units to continue promoting inspection, examination and control activities; and increase the presence of forces at sea to promptly prevent IUU fishing-related violations.

Units must organise patrols and enhance inspection and supervision over fishing activities right from the first quarter of 2023, and closely coordinate with sub-departments of fishery and relevant forces to launch peak campaigns on fighting IUU fishing and perform joint patrol duties among fishery law enforcement forces to prevent and handle violations, Hung said.

According to Nguyen Phu Quoc, deputy general director of the VFRS, the patrol, control and settlement of IUU fishing violations by fishery resources surveillance forces in 2022 proved effective thanks to the synchronous coordination at all levels.

Units have always maintained regular patrols and presence in key fishing grounds, bordering and overlapping waters between Vietnam and other countries in order to promptly prevent Vietnamese fishing ships from illegally exploiting seafood in foreign waters, he noted.

The coordination between surveillance units with the Navy, Coast Guard, and Border Guard forces in the work has been also maintained regularly, he added.

Quoc said his agency will review and re-sign the coordination regulations with the Border Guard, Coast Guard, Navy, and Public Security forces to strengthen patrol, inspection and control of fishing activities at sea, towards stopping Vietnamese fishing vessels from illegally fishing in foreign waters./.