Illustrative image (Source: VASEP) Tien Giang, located in the downstream of Tien River, has acoastline of 21 km, adjacent to large estuaries. The traditional fisheryindustry has developed strongly, creating jobs for more than 10,000 locals, andreaching an output of between 120,000 and 130,000 tonnes of seafood of all kinds annually.
The province has stepped up the combat against IUU fishing bysetting up a IUU fishing steering committee, intensifying dissemination toraise fishermen’s awareness, installing and operating vessel monitoringequipment for offshore fishing ships, and closely inspecting and monitoring fishermen’scompliance with laws.
In 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Developmentand relevant sectors and localities have organised 36 communication campaigns, attracting the participation of thousands of fishermen and ship owners andproviding them with 1,080 documents to popularise guidelines, policies,directives and regulations on combating IUU fishing in the province.
As of September 15, all 961 operating offshore fishing vessels hadbeen equipped with monitoring devices.
Since 2020, the provincial Department of Agriculture andRural Development has conducted dozens of specialised inspections, checking 1,484fishing vessels. Thereby, it made 33 records of administrative violations with atotal fine of 250.5 million VND (10,900 USD) against 33 individuals whocommitted administrative violations related to IUU fishing.
In 2021, the provincial People's Committee also issued adecision on administrative violations. Accordingly, a fine of 1.8 billion VND is imposed on a private enterprises with two ships seized for violating foreign waters.
Thanks to these drastic measures, the fight against IUUfishing in the province has made positive changes. The number of fishingboats in the province that are seized by foreign countries has decreased remarkably,from 12 in 2017 to only one in 2021. Tien Giang pledges to continue its effortsto help remove the European Commission’s "yellow card" warning so as tohelp the local fishery industry integrate and develop sustainably./.
VNA
