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From 2022 to 2023, 10 fishing vessels in Binh Dinh had been seized and put under surveillance for trespassing into foreign waters, said a local official. To combat this, Binh Dinh Province has made a list to monitor 318 fishing vessels that regularly operate outside the province which could commit illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
Quang Ngai also reported 79 fishing boats of unknown origin, the owners of which are locals but whose locations are unknown due to prolonged absence.
Meanwhile, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province in 2022 has discovered 28 fishing vessels whose VMS devices were handed over to other owners for “safe-keeping”. Another 15 were found under the same circumstances in Tien Giang province, resulting in 4 ship owners and 15 captains fined a total of over VND3.2 billion (about US$136,257).
By the end of 2022, over 86 percent of Vietnamese vessels were licensed to fish, of which more than 96 percent have been equipped with VMSs. Despite this, the mainland has lost connections with a number of them, which were later found engaging in illegal fishing activities in foreign waters, said the Directorate of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. According to officials, this could have been caused by conflicting fining policies.
In Da Nang, Major Dang Van Dao, Head of Son Tra Border Guards have sent officers down to fishing ships to educate captains and their crews on IUU regulations.
Currently, fishermen in Quang Binh, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Da Nang and other southern provinces continue to report on VMS interruptions due to technical difficulties and lack of communications between industry leaders.
In Binh Chau Commune, Quang Ngai Province, there are about 1,700 fishermen operating 483 fishing boats (including 234 being offshore). Many of them have been subjected to VMS malfunctions, even trying to hold out to continue fishing and accepting the fines for failure to report after 10 days at sea.
Meanwhile, Quang Ngai since the beginning of 2023 has detected 5 fishing vessels that went beyond the limited bounds, with another 70 failing to report for more than 10 days. Director General of the General Department of Fisheries said they are looking into possible causes.
Fortunately, Ca Mau which has 4,310 registered fishing vessels in the Mekong Delta has not have any vessel captured in foreign territories since the beginning of 2023.
To help lift “yellow card” warnings placed by the European Commission (EC), competent agencies have been encouraging localities to properly follow vessel registration procedures, fishing license, logging requirements, VMS installation and other related matters.
It is expected that in June, the European Commission (EC) inspection team will visit Vietnam for the fourth time to check the progress on combating IUU violations after the five years that Vietnamese the seafood industry was given the “yellow card”.
