Localities report progresses in IUU fishing combat

Strong efforts have been made to restructure the fisheries sector towards greater transparency, responsibility, and sustainability, thus improving the quality of living conditions for fishermen, contributing to safeguarding the nation's sovereignty and sovereign rights over its seas and islands.

Combating IUU fishing activities is a key and urgent task of Vietnam's fisheries sector to remove the EC’s "yellow card" warning, which not only helps boost the efficiency of seafood exports to the European Union (EU) but also creates opportunities for developing sustainable aquaculture and fisheries.

The southernmost province of Ca Mau has 4,265 fishing vessels, including 1,542 vessels with a length of 15 metres and above. All of these have been equipped with vessel monitoring system (VMS). The locality has seven large estuary with high vessel traffic, including five operational fishing ports.

Le Van Su, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee underlined efforts made by authorised agencies in inspection, monitoring, issuing warnings and notes through VMS, contributing to minimising IUU fishing violations.

There has been no incident of local fishing vessels being caught by foreign authorities for illegal fishing activities since August 2022.

Nguyen Huu Nghia, Director of the fisheries sub-department of the south-central province of Binh Dinh said 100% of the locality's offshore fishing vessels have been equipped with VMS.

Notably, the province has basically controlled fishing vessels that are at high risk of violating IUU fishing regulations, including fishing illegally in foreign waters, he noted.

In the south-central province of Binh Thuan, one of the three key fishing grounds in the country, prominent achievements have been made in combating IUU fishing. Thanks to strict monitoring of high-risk vessels, the province has not detected any fishing vessels violating foreign waters in 2024.

According to the provincial People's Committee, the control of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports has been tightened, while the traceability of
seafood through electronic software systems has also made progress.

The provincial People’s Council approved a resolution that stipulates a policy to support subscription fees for VMS devices. It is expected that nearly 2,000 local fishing vessels will receive financial support for three years with a total value of nearly 12.3 billion VND (over 484,000 USD)./.