Bringing Nghe An fisheries into the 'common playground'
(Baonghean) - Up to now, Nghe An has completed procedures for nearly 100% of the total 3,566 boats in the area, especially boats from 12m and 24m and above. Notably, from January 1, 2019, when the Fisheries Law took effect, the province established 3 interdisciplinary teams including Border Guard, Fisheries Sub-Department and Management Board of fishing ports on duty daily at Lach Quen, Lach Van and Cua Hoi port to complete procedures for fishing boats.
BEFORE G-HOUR
Previously, fishing and exploitation activities at sea were traditional occupations. Fishermen simply bought boats to catch seafood for sale without being bound by the procedures for port entry and exit permits.
However, due to increasingly large-scale fishing activities, more modern fishing equipment and to ensure sustainable exploitation, since 2003 the Fisheries Law has required fishermen to keep fishing diaries.
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| Quynh Luu fishermen have a good anchovy season. Photo: Viet Hung |
However, when the fisheries industry deeply integrated into the international playground and Vietnamese seafood was given a yellow card warning by Europe, the 2017 Fisheries Law had stricter regulations, ships without sufficient licenses were not allowed to leave port, and violations would be severely punished...
In addition, implementing the Tonkin Gulf Fisheries Agreement, vessels that have completed all procedures are allowed to enter each other's common fishing areas. Therefore, the Fisheries Law stipulates that when fishing offshore, our vessels must have a license, inspection certificate, and certificates for the captain, chief engineer, and mechanic depending on the size of the vessel. Each time entering or leaving the port, the vessel must present an updated fishing logbook for each voyage; fishing crew members must be between 18 and 60 years of age...
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| Nghe An's large-capacity fishing fleet goes offshore to fish in major fishing grounds. Photo: Canh Yen |
To implement this regulation, the Fisheries sector has nearly 2 years to propagate and complete paperwork for fishermen. In Nghe An, the province has established working groups to propagate and mobilize fishermen, and at the same time organize training to issue certificates for captains, chief engineers, and to inspect and issue inspection certificates for boats...
At first, when implementing the above regulations, the crew also felt pressure and the fishermen were not used to it, but thanks to the propaganda and support, the people complied well, and all boats entering and leaving the port completed the procedures. With 521 boats in the area, the team processed 50-60 boats entering and leaving on most days, so people did not have to wait too long.
Putting fishing activities into a framework is an effort to implement international commitments that Vietnam has participated in; at the same time, it paves the way for our seafood to reach larger markets. However, due to the weak technical infrastructure of Nghe An's fisheries and the lack of awareness among the people, the actual implementation has encountered many difficulties and shortcomings.
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| Fishermen of Quynh Luu district catch seafood in the Gulf of Tonkin. Photo: Nguyen Khoa |
MANY PROBLEMS
The first problem is the regulation on the age of participation in fishing activities. According to the Fisheries Law and guiding circulars, crew members participating in fishing must be of working age, that is, from 18 to 60 years old. However, in reality, in coastal communes of Quynh Luu or Hoang Mai town, people over 60 years old participating in fishing are not few.
Next is the regulation on fishing vessel capacity, only vessels with capacity under 600 CV are allowed to enter the common fishing area of both sides to exploit.
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| Dong Minh is a small fishing village in Quynh Lap commune with a modest number of fishermen, who mainly fish close to shore, depending on the weather to go out to sea in the early morning or late afternoon. Photo: Duy Son |
However, according to Mr. Nguyen Duy Hai - Chairman of the Quynh Lap Commune Fisheries Association (Hoang Mai Town), there are currently no fish in the sea area less than 60 nautical miles from shore, so most of the boats have to fish 100 - 150 nautical miles from shore. At the time of signing the Fisheries Agreement in 2005, we did not have any boats over 600 CV, but now there are quite a lot of boats over 600 CV (Quynh Lap alone has 70 boats over 700 CV), so it is very inconvenient.
The Tonkin Gulf Fisheries Agreement will expire on June 15, 2019, so during the negotiation process, the relevant authorities should amend the regulations so that vessels over 600 CV can enter the common fishing zone.
On the other hand, the Fisheries Law also stipulates that vessels must have a fishing logbook that specifically records the fishing area, which means they must have a voyage monitoring device. Specifically, vessels over 24m from July 1, 2019 must install a monitoring device; vessels from 15m to 24m from January 1, 2020 and the remaining vessels from April 1, 2020 must install a voyage monitoring device.
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| Boats return to dock and complete procedures at the North bank of Lach Quen fishing port. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
To implement the above regulation, the province has recently provided about 200 sets of monitoring equipment to the people, but fishermen are reluctant to use them, so they break down after a while. Currently, only about 20% of the total 234 ships with a length of over 24m in the province have journey monitoring equipment.
To install a voyage monitoring device, fishermen must invest from 20 to 50 million VND per set of equipment and pay from 400,000 VND to 1 million VND per month to maintain the service, so fishermen are not interested. This is the reason why Son Hai fishermen were given 16 sets of voyage monitoring devices, but when they go to sea, the power is turned off.
The last and biggest problem is the infrastructure of fishing ports. While the investment in fishing equipment is getting bigger and bigger, the waterways are quite inadequate. At Lach Van, Lach Con or Lach Thoi, fishing boats have to take advantage of each tide to enter and exit, otherwise the whole trip will be delayed. Difficulties and problems arise when many boats enter and exit the port at the same time, making the interdisciplinary team work quite hard.
There are times at Lach Quen when the procedures for entering or leaving the port take too long, so it is inevitable that fishermen are dissatisfied with the staff.
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| Fishermen complete departure procedures at Lach Quen Port. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
For ports with interdisciplinary teams on duty to handle, at Lach Con or Lach Thoi, due to lack of staff on duty, the task of receiving and processing documents entering and leaving the port is assigned to the fishing association.
However, according to Mr. Le Van Ky - Vice President of Quynh Lap Fisheries Association (Hoang Mai Town), because the fisheries association operates concurrently, fishermen who need to leave the port every day must submit their documents at the commune headquarters, and at the end of the day the association must bring them to the border station for processing within 24 hours. Although maximum conditions are created, it is still not possible to avoid problems. The situation in Quynh Phuong Ward (Hoang Mai Town) is similar when dozens of documents entering and leaving the port every day must be sent to the fisheries association for processing.
According to regulations, vessels over 24m after July 1, 2019 entering the common fishing area or without complete procedures will be severely punished, the lowest level is vessels with expired licenses will be fined from 300 to 500 million VND; other acts, depending on the level of violation, will be fined from 500 million to 1 billion VND, so fishermen will have a very difficult time.
Currently, due to the lack of port infrastructure, the procedures for boats entering and leaving Lach Thoi and Lach Con ports are handled by the commune fishing association in coordination with the border guard station. Although we know it is difficult, due to insufficient human resources, we have to accept it temporarily. According to Mr. Tran Nhu Long, to help people avoid the risk of being fined, in the coming time, along with continuing to propagate and guide, fishermen must complete all procedures according to regulations.
Currently, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is directing localities to inform ships over 24m of the province to dock at fixed ports before July 1, 2019 so that suppliers can install journey monitoring equipment.
In the long term, the Department of Fisheries will propose to the Provincial People's Committee a plan to arrange forces to handle port entry and exit procedures for boats at the remaining ports so that people can go fishing safely and conveniently.
