Thanh Hoa is among provinces that will be inspected during the fifth working round with the inspection delegation from the European Commission in May. (Photo: VNA) Thanh Hoa (VNA) – The People's Committee of the northern central province of Thanh Hoa onMarch 13 helda conference to deploy urgent tasks and solutions to combat illegal, unreportedand unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Speaking at the conference, Director of the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Van Cuong, who is also StandingDeputy Head of the provincial Steering Committee on combating IUU fishing, requestedrelevant departments, agencies and coastal localities to thoroughly address outstanding shortcomings and limitations towards promptly preventing and fully ending IUU fishing in the province.
The province’s Fisheries Sub-Departmentand Thanh Hoa Fishing Port Management Board will continue to assign staff to guide households and fishing vessel owners to complete paperwork as prescribed.
They will keep coordinating withborder guards and waterway traffic police to strengthen patrols and control of fishing activities to strictly handle violations.
The fisheries sub-departmentstrictly updated the volume of seafood catches unloaded at local ports ontothe national database.
Any fishing vessels that are found to not meet regulations or commit IUU fishing must be reported to the competentauthority for properly handling.
Competent agencies and localities were asked to intensify communications activities to raise vessel owners and households' understanding on regulationsagainst IUU fishing.
Vessels without registration, fishing licences and certificates that prove their seaworthiness (vessels with 3 NOs) are notallowed to operate at sea.
Meanwhile, the provincial Border Guard Command will organise acrackdown to ensure that vessels without papers, license plates or vesselmonitoring system (VMS) are not allowed to sail.
They will also focus on verifying and handle cases where fishingvessels’ VMS lose connection while the ships are at sea or fishing vessels go beyond permittedboundaries at sea.
Thanh Hoa is among provinces that will be inspected during thefifth working round with the inspection delegation from the European Commission(EC) in May./.
