Discussing urgent solutions to combat IUU fishing and lift the EC's yellow card.

On the morning of June 19th, under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien - Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee on IUU, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment held an online meeting to discuss urgent measures to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and lift the EC's yellow card by August 30th, 2025.

Nghe An participated in the meeting under the chairmanship of Comrade Nguyen Van De - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Focus on urgent and coordinated solutions.

At the meeting, representatives from the provinces reported on the implementation of measures to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and to lift the EC's yellow card; they also highlighted difficulties encountered during implementation and requested support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the National Steering Committee on IUU to improve the effectiveness of this work in their localities.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien instructed localities and relevant agencies to continue focusing all resources and effectively implementing key solutions in the coming period. He emphasized the need to prevent and minimize the number of fishing vessels violating foreign waters, and to strictly punish violations.

At the same time, a more thorough and rigorous review and management of the fishing fleet is necessary, ensuring that 100% of fishing vessels operating at sea meet the required conditions, such as installing vessel tracking systems (VMS), maintaining fishing logs, and maintaining connectivity even when docked. Authorities must strengthen control and verification of the origin of seafood at ports.

In October 2025, the European Commission (EC) and Vietnam are expected to agree to conduct an inspection on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

"These measures must be addressed decisively so that Vietnam has a chance to have the IUU yellow card lifted. It needs to be clearly understood that efforts to combat IUU fishing are not only aimed at lifting the EC's yellow card, but also at protecting sustainable fisheries resources and ensuring livelihoods for Vietnamese fishermen," the Deputy Minister emphasized.

All content related to combating IUU fishing achieved high rates.

Currently, Nghe An province has a total of 2,986 fishing vessels (2,664 vessels over 6m and 1,044 vessels over 15m). To combat IUU fishing and lift the EC's yellow card, the entire political system of Nghe An has been actively involved, implementing measures synchronously from the provincial level down to the grassroots.

The province promptly issued three resolutions on funding and policy mechanisms to support fishermen (installation of vessel tracking devices, subscription fees, fuel subsidies for offshore fishing trips, etc.).

To date, the rates for registration, inspection of fishing vessels, issuance of fishing licenses, and installation of vessel tracking devices have all reached high levels: 614 out of 614 fishing vessels with "three no's" (no registration, no inspection, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, no certification, and full updating of vessel data into the national fisheries database have been completed; vessel inspection has reached 94.8%; fishing license issuance has reached 95.66%; food safety certificates for fishing vessels have reached 93.30%; and vessel tracking device installation has reached 99.43%.

Authorities have strictly implemented the weekly compilation and updating of lists of fishing vessels at risk of violating IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing regulations; posted lists of fishing vessels that do not meet the requirements for participating in fisheries activities in residential communities and assigned local authorities to monitor and control them.

In 2024, Nghe An province fined 290 individuals and organizations, totaling over 5.3 billion VND (nearly eight times more than in 2023); in the first six months of 2025, it fined 78 individuals and organizations over 1.2 billion VND, including 31 individuals fined for disabling vessel tracking systems, totaling 892 million VND; no cases of local fishing vessels violating regulations on illegal fishing in foreign waters have been detected.

In the coming period, the province will continue to focus resources and personnel on investigating, verifying, and strictly handling violations related to vessel tracking devices on fishing boats. The Provincial Border Guard Command will be directed to expedite the investigation, verification, and handling of fishing boats that have lost VMS connectivity.

In addition, continue to strictly manage the fishing fleet, compile a list of fishing vessels that do not meet operating requirements, and assign specific individuals to monitor, supervise, and manage them; in particular, organize a review of fishing vessels that have been sold, burned, sunk, or are no longer in operation to remove them from the fishing vessel registration list, in order to "clean up" fishing vessel data in the national fisheries database.

At the same time, all fishing vessels over 15 meters in length are required to depart from, arrive at, and unload their catch at designated fishing ports to increase the percentage of catch monitored through ports. Strict control of vessels entering and leaving ports is required. Border guard posts and control stations must resolutely refuse entry to fishing vessels that have lost connection with their vessel tracking devices at sea but have not yet been penalized according to regulations.