More than 1,540 fishing boats in Nghe An will install voyage monitoring equipment.

The province currently has more than 3,900 fishing vessels, of which 234 fishing vessels over 24 meters in length will have their voyage monitoring equipment installed before July 1, 2019; 1,309 fishing vessels between 15 and under 24 meters in length will have their equipment installed before January 1, 2020.

In Quynh Luu district, there are currently 175 vessels with a length of 24m or more out of a total of 1,036 vessels participating in seafood exploitation that must install monitoring devices (by the end of 2020) and 429 fishing vessels of Quynh Luu district with a length of 15 - 24m must also install this monitoring device. At the same time, the district organized a commitment signing with captains in the area not to illegally exploit in foreign waters.

Fishing boats of Nghe An fishermen will install voyage monitoring equipment. Photo: Viet Hung.

Installing voyage monitoring equipment for fishing vessels is one of Vietnam’s urgent solutions to get the European Union (EU) to make a favorable ruling to remove the “yellow card” for Vietnamese seafood. Thereby, it not only helps facilitate fisheries management, creates conditions for inspection and traceability of seafood caught by fishermen at sea, but also contributes significantly to preventing illegal fishing.

However, the deployment of the installation of voyage monitoring devices for fishing vessels in Nghe An province in general and Quynh Luu district in particular has still encountered many difficulties. This voyage monitoring device is currently quite expensive, from 20 to 40 million VND/device, and the vessel owner must install it himself, so up to this point, many fishing vessels are still hesitant, waiting until the deadline is almost over to install it.

Authorities educate fishermen about installing voyage monitoring devices. Photo: Viet Hung

To overcome and remove the IUU "yellow card" on seafood exports, we coordinate with inter-sectoral agencies to propagate and guide fishermen to comply with policies and regulations on seafood exploitation and capture. In particular, the necessary condition to be allowed to go offshore is to have a voyage monitoring device. Therefore, after the deadline for installing the monitoring device expires, we will conduct inspections and reviews of fishing vessels that are required to install voyage monitoring devices but do not install them to take measures to handle them according to regulations."

Mr. Tran Nhu Long - Deputy Head of Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department

It is known that by July 1, 2019, if fishing vessels over 24m in length have not installed a journey monitoring device but still deliberately go to sea or do not turn on the monitoring device, they may be fined up to 300 million VND, and those fishing vessels violating foreign waters may be fined up to 1 billion VND.