Discussing solutions for career conversion and combating illegal fishing in Dien Chau

Comrade Tran Xuan Hoc - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Head of the working delegation chaired the meeting. Also attending were representatives of the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance, the Port Management Board, departments under the Department, representatives of the provincial interdisciplinary delegation, representatives of the Border Guard Station and communes of Dien Chau district.

Dien Chau district currently has 964 vehicles, of which 3 fishing boats are over 24m long, 180 boats are from 15m to 24m long, 231 boats are from 12m to 15m long, 18 boats are from 6m to 12m long; the remaining 535 boats are in the form of rafts.

The whole district still has 9 ships that have not installed VMS monitoring equipment, of which 4 ships do not exist because they were sold out of the area and 5 ships are on shore, not fishing, and are for sale.

Currently, vessels over 15m in length have installed VMS, any vessel that disconnects or fishes in coastal waters (fishing in the wrong area) is recorded by the national monitoring system for handling by the authorities. Some fishing vessels over 15m in length but still fish in coastal waters have caused depletion of aquatic resources and are very harmful in the long term. Although the authorities continuously check, remind and impose penalties, the change is very slow...

At the meeting, the representative of Dien Chau District People's Committee said: in the peak campaign, the district, communes and border guards have made efforts to inspect and handle ships that violate the VMS connection, coordinate to handle "3-no ships"; make records to fine violating ships...

Since the beginning of the year, the District People's Committee has fined 6 boat owners/6 fishing boats VND 140 million due to the error of losing VMS connection for more than 10 days.

In addition, the locality is also facing difficulties in converting jobs for people. In the area, 87% of the fishing fleet is still trawling, this is the traditional profession of the people, for a long time the vessels have been registered and managed according to engine capacity. Since the 2017 Fisheries Law, due to the change in length of fishing vessels, fishing vessels over 6m in length must be registered but there are problems with conditions and criteria. Meanwhile, Dien Chau fishermen mainly work in trawling, which is the lowest profession, with the smallest vessels, so they cannot switch to other professions...

In the communes of Dien Ngoc, Dien Bich... there are still a few households that specialize in buying old ships to dismantle but then do not cooperate, do not complete the procedures to delete the registration so the registration system is still there, so the license plate is still there. Besides, some households have committed to deleting the "3 no" ships with the locality and the locality has finalized the list of 3 no ships but then reported the loss or did not provide the original documents for the authorities to deregister and delete the registration. In addition, according to the Border Guard Station, due to the shallow channel infrastructure and scattered anchorage, controlling ships entering and leaving the port still faces many difficulties.

Based on the comments, the leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development acknowledged the efforts of the locality and the functional forces. On the basis of sharing the common difficulties of the locality, the representative of the working group also noted that the locality must make great efforts and determination in handling violations to remove the EC yellow card in 2024. Along with finding solutions to handle IUU violations, the province and the industry will accompany the localities to find solutions to ensure livelihoods for the people. In the near future, along with guiding fishing vessels to install VMS equipment according to regulations, it is necessary to repaint and redraw the identification signs of fishing vessels according to regulations; re-register and delete the registration number of the vessels on shore; proactively propose to the province to advise on policies to support people to effectively change their jobs. In the immediate future, it is necessary to mobilize fishermen to comply with the penalty decisions./.