Returning to Quy Nhon Fishing Port from a fishing trip in the Spratly Islands, captain Mai Truong of fishing vessel BD 96986 TS, living in Hoai Thanh Ward of Hoai Nhon Town in Binh Dinh Province was really frustrated as the installed Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) on his ship continuously showed signs of interruptions and signal losses.
Truong informed that his vessel is 20m long with a capacity of 705CV, equipped with a VMS by VNPT for offshore fishing. In 2024, his ship mainly works in the fishing ground of the Spratly Islands. Yet because of two consecutive times when his VMS lost signal in April and May 2024 (network error) while he was working at 7 nautical miles from the maritime border, he was suspected to purposedly turn off the VMS device for illegal fishing in foreign waters.
Even with a formal explanation, it was still hard for him to prove the source of his caught seafood, and thus could not enjoy related policies. Meanwhile, he has to pay a monthly subscription fee of VND250,000 ($9.8) to VND1 million ($39).
The Management Board of Quy Nhon Fishing Port reported 150 cases like this just in April and May 2024 due to network errors, which has caused much frustration and even financial loss to fishermen.
A similar situation can be found in Quang Ngai Province, where fishermen are struggling with the device ICom VX-1700 – the only chosen VMS by the local functional agencies to apply supporting policies. This device is too outdated and its replacement cannot be found easily, so many fishermen have to sell their boat.
Huynh Ngoc Sum, a fisherman in Nghia An Commune of Quang Ngai City reported that he repeatedly sent messages to the shore station, but the action was unsuccessfully carried out due to technical problems. This led to a lack of sufficient number of messages to be eligible for financial support.
Another emergent issue is human resources shortage in fishing ports, which are usually an autonomous unit with limited manpower, but the staff is almost overwhelmed with countless unpaid tasks.
The recent nationwide VMS connection loss has created more frustration to the Management Board of Binh Dinh Fishing Port, resulting in temporary halting of processing documents for seafood source confirmation.
Director Nguyen Huu Nghia of the Binh Dinh Provincial Fisheries Sub-department shared that about 170 fishing vessels under 15m long are in frequent operation in fishing grounds in South Vietnam, mainly in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province. Many of them have a high risk of illegally fishing in foreign waters, and have been encouraged to install a VMS device with a financial support of 50 percent of the price.
Director Nguyen Van Muoi of the Quang Ngai Provincial Fisheries Sub-department commented that the toughest challenge right now is to monitor fishing ships working outside the province. These vessels would prefer informal unplanned fishing ports to sell their seafood instead of coming to official ones in order to avoid finishing administrative procedures. When they turn off their VMS device, it is extremely difficult to track them.
Many cities in the Central region are using a common app, called eCDT, that integrates various stages from offshore fishing to local management and seafood export. However, this app can only be installed on an Android device, not an iOS one.
VNPT formally issued a notice regarding the simultaneous VMS device disconnection issue in 28 coastal provinces and cities, saying that the error was caused by the Thuraya 3 satellite affecting the VNPT-VSS service.
In the middle of May 2024, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development requested provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and VNPT to notify and guide vessel owners and captains to implement temporary solutions.
Accordingly, related people should use alternative maritime and communication devices to report incidents to the Fisheries Sub-department every 6 hours. Fishermen are encouraged to equip their vessels with new VMS devices from other suppliers according to regulations.
