Nghe An: Fishing boats will have their licenses revoked if they do not maintain their voyage monitoring devices.

According to the regulations ofFisheries Law 2017and Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP dated March 8, 2019 of the Government, fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more must install a voyage monitoring device before April 1, 2020 and must ensure that the device operates continuously 24/24 hours from the time the vessel leaves the port until it returns.

Voyage monitoring equipment installed on fishing boats. Photo: Tien Dong

According to regulations, ships with length from 15m to under 24m will be supervised by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the provinces, ships with length from 24m or more will be supervised by the Directorate of Fisheries.

Installationjourney monitorwill help authorities manage fisheries conveniently, and easily trace the origin of seafood caught by fishermen at sea, limiting the situation of fishing vessels fishing in the wrong sea areas.

In addition to an antenna installed outside, there will be a receiver and transmitter installed inside the cockpit. However, currently in Dien Bich commune (Dien Chau), there are 87 ships reporting broken journey monitoring equipment. Photo: Tien Dong

In Nghe An, there are currently 1,129 ships out of a total of 1,182 ships that have installed voyage monitoring devices, reaching a rate of 95.52%.

However, the current fishing vessel monitoring system of the Directorate of Fisheries only displays 965 vessels, reaching 81.64%, so the Directorate of Fisheries has classified 164 vessels that have had their services cut or stopped as not yet installed. Of these, 89 fishing vessels reported broken equipment, mainly concentrated in Dien Chau district; 75 fishing vessels have not paid the subscription fee to maintain the journey monitoring equipment.

In that situation,Nghe An Fisheries Departmenthad to notify the People's Committees of coastal communes and wards to request that the owners of ships whose services were cut off must quickly activate the equipment and pay the maintenance fee according to regulations. At the same time, the interdisciplinary working group at fishing ports and coastal border stations was requested to direct inspection and control, resolutely not allow departure for ships on the list of ships whose services were cut off, and strictly handle fishing vessels that go fishing without maintaining the operation of the voyage monitoring equipment.

Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department also announced that after December 10, 2021, fishing vessels on the list of service cuts that do not maintain the operation of the journey monitoring equipment will have their granted fishing licenses revoked./.