Illustrative image (Photo: nhandan.vn) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s coast guards have been workingclosely with localities to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU)with concerted measures over the past years.
Lieut. Col. Nguyen Van Hoc, commander of a patrolteam, said his team consists of seven ships. They areresponsible for conducting patrols, inspection, and ensuring legal enforcementin adjacent waters, urging fishermen not to violate IUU regulations, startingfrom before the 2023 Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.
He said before the 2023 Tet festival,the border waters under the management of his team was only frequented by 20-40fishing vessels. However, following the holiday, there have been an average of70-150 per day coming here to catch seafood.
During crackdowns on IUU fishing, thefleet increased patrols, especially from 4-10am and 4-10pm every day when fishingvessels were most likely to cross into foreign waters to catch seafood.
Theyalso raised awareness among thousands of fishermen about policies of theGovernment, the national and Defence Ministry’s steering committees on IUU preventionand control.
Afternearly 50 days on duty in border waters, Hoc's fleet punished 32 fishing vesselsthat violated regulations on fishing at sea, such as lacking a captain'slicense and necessary personal documents of crewmembers. They imposed a totalfine of nearly 400 million VND (17,300 USD).
CaptainLe Anh Tuan, head of Ship 4039 of Coast Guard Region IV, said apart from the main task of increasing patrols andpreventing Vietnamese fishing vessels from violating IUU fishing regulations, his fleet also assists fishermen working legally such asproviding fresh water, medicines, food and vegetables, and especially providingassistance for fishermen in distress at sea.
Toenhance the involvement of the entire political system in the IUU combat, the CoastGuards High Command directed units to add IUU prevention and control contents into its programmes and mass mobilisation work, contributing to disseminatingthe Party's policies and State's laws on protecting sovereignty over seas andislands in the new situation, as well as IUU combat regulations.
Asa result, not any fishermen have failed to comply with orders frompatrol teams, intentionalviolations of IUU fishing regulations have decreased significantly./.
