94% of Nghe An fishermen proactively install journey monitoring devices on fishing boats

This morning, July 13, under the chairmanship of Mr. Le Van Thanh - Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), the Government held an online conference with 28 coastal provinces and cities to assess the implementation results of the EC's recommendations on IUU.

At Nghe An bridge, comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired.

Overview of the first meeting at Nghe An bridge point. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Report ofMinistry of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentIt shows that after nearly 4 years of implementation, the EC has highly appreciated and recognized Vietnam's commitment, political determination and efforts in implementing solutions to combat IUU fishing.

Vietnam has made much progress and is on the right track; acknowledge and appreciate Vietnam's goodwill, spirit of cooperation, transparency and honesty in providing information and exchanging between the two sides on the results of the implementation of the fight against IUU fishing.

However, there is still a situationfishing boat, Vietnamese fishermen violate regulations on seafood exploitation in foreign waters; there are still many problems in keeping fishermen's logs during fishing at sea; many fishing ports do not ensure environmental hygiene...

For Nghe An, to overcomerecommendationof the EC, the province has implemented drastically and synchronously, thanks to which fishermen's awareness of law compliance as well as the management of fishing activities has been increasingly raised, contributing to the task of overcoming the "Yellow Card" warning of the European Commission on combating IUU fishing.

Fishing boats of fishermen in Quynh Luu district go out to sea to exploit seafood. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Fishermen actively installjourney monitoring device, reaching a rate of nearly 94%; the situation of fishing vessels violating foreign waters is decreasing; the work of monitoring fishing vessels through the fishing vessel monitoring system at the Shore Station is gradually being completed.

The units have actively and proactively coordinated to resolutely and synchronously deploy the tasks of patrolling, inspecting and controlling fishing vessel activities in Nghe An waters, promptly detecting and strictly handling IUU fishing activities; the monitoring of fishing vessels has been gradually improved, and the monitoring of seafood loading and unloading output at fishing ports has had positive changes...

However, up to now, Nghe An still has 75 fishing boats (accounting for 6.19%) that have not installed journey monitoring.FishermanNot maintaining 24/7 monitoring equipment when participating in exploitation at sea, there are still situations where fishing boats lose connection to the journey monitoring equipment when going to sea, causing difficulties in monitoring the activities of fishing boats.

Purchasing seafood at a fishing port in Nghe An. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh highly appreciated the efforts of ministries, sectors and localities in implementing the EC's recommendations on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Therefore, the transformation of fishermen has been improved, the number of boats violating foreign waters has decreased significantly; the management and traceability of seafood has improved; seaport infrastructure has received proper investment in recent years...

However, the number of ships violating foreign waters remains high, seafood traceability has not met requirements, and facilities at fishing ports have not met requirements.

With the goal of ending the situation of vessels violating foreign waters and strictly implementing IUU regulations by the end of 2022, the Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to do a good job of propaganda to fishermen. At the same time, perfect the legal system to have a suitable legal framework and a better basis for law enforcement.

For 28 coastal provinces and cities, pay attention to investing in fishing ports; review the infrastructure and facilities, strengthen inspection of procedures at fishing ports.../.