Tightening fleet management, strengthening port controls
Under Plan No. 460/KH-UBND, signed by Vice Chairman of the Municipal People’s Committee Bui Minh Thanh, the city aims to fully update and standardize all registered fishing vessel data on the National Fisheries Database (VNFishbase) by September 15. The effort focuses on eradicating duplicate, missing, or inaccurate entries.
Municipal authorities will step up monitoring of high-risk vessels, including deregistered ships that remain operational, as well as unflagged, uninspected, or unlicensed boats.
At fishing ports, enforcement personnel are inspecting vessel monitoring systems (VMS), checking operational statuses, anti-tamper seals, and equipment serial numbers. Ships with malfunctioning, unsealed, or tampered VMS units will be barred from departing.
The city's monitoring center will operate around the clock to detect and penalize violations, including signal disruptions, boundary breaches, and unauthorized device removal or disabling.
Additionally, the municipality aims to achieve 100 percent digital tracking on the national electronic catch documentation and traceability system (eCDT) platform for all fishing vessels measuring six meters or longer entering or leaving ports. Seafood catches lacking valid eCDT trace records will be denied catch certification.
Ho Chi Minh City orders definitive crackdown on illegal fishing to meet EU mandates
Under the enhanced measures, municipal agencies must conduct complete audits and enforce definitive administrative or legal action on pending cases involving vessel monitoring system (VMS) signal disruptions, maritime boundary breaches, and unauthorized operations in foreign waters. City leaders mandated that 100 percent of reported violations be received, verified, and adjudicated under proper jurisdiction, with all penalties fully logged into the national sanctions database. Investigations and final rulings must be finalized within 60 days of case filing.
To reinforce legal compliance, authorities specified that acts exhibiting criminal intent, including organizing illegal fishing trips, brokering the entry of vessels into foreign jurisdictions, falsifying documentation, misrepresenting origin certificates, or intentionally tampering with tracking hardware, will face immediate criminal prosecution where sufficient grounds exist.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Agriculture and Environment is assigned to investigate and penalize VMS signal outages lasting between 6 hours and under 10 days.
The Ho Chi Minh City High Command and Border Guard Command will control port entries and exits, conduct offshore sea patrols, and handle critical infractions, including VMS blackouts exceeding 10 days, territorial boundary breaches, and physical device tampering.
The Ho Chi Minh City Police will track, investigate, and prosecute criminal networks, brokers, and syndicates organizing unlawful overseas fishing operations.
Ho Chi Minh City will also step up communication efforts and ensure that all necessary documents, data, and working materials are fully prepared for its engagement with the EC.
City leadership emphasized that anti-IUU efforts will remain a permanent operational priority following the current peak campaign. Agencies will be subjected to mandatory monthly and ad-hoc progress reporting, with department heads held personally accountable for non-compliance or failure to meet targets.
