Nghe An: Tightening management of seafood exploitation activities
(Baonghean) - According to information from the National Steering Committee for Combating IUU Fishing, at the end of October, the European Commission will have a working trip to inspect the situation of overcoming the contents according to the EC Yellow Card recommendations on exploitation and fishing on the sea route. Together with 28 coastal localities, Nghe An has been making efforts, using many solutions to develop sustainable exploitation activities.
High determination, synchronous solutions
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Tran Nhu Long - Deputy Head of Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department said: In recent years, while the strength of the fishing fleet has increased, regulations on fishing have become stricter, but the fishing habits of fishermen have not changed much, still relying on tradition. Besides, the fishing infrastructure is lacking and inadequate, so management is extremely difficult. Since 2018,Fisheries Lawissued in 2017, there are many new regulations on fishing conditions and along with that, our country is deeply integrated into the international community, so we are forced to comply with and respect international standards on sustainable protection of aquatic resources, fishing must comply with regulations and the European Commission's Yellow Card recommendation is one of the standards.
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Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial IUU Steering Committee and leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development checked the VMS signal of fishing vessels on the monitoring system of the Quynh Phuong Fishing Port Management Board. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
For Nghe An,Gulf of Tonkinis the main fishing ground, but because the delimitation agreement signed between Vietnam and China has expired and the two countries have not signed it, to enter the common fishing area, ships must be licensed, otherwise they will be considered a violation.
Therefore, the management of fishing activities is increasingly under pressure. From 2019 to present, in order to implement regulations on fishing and combat IUU fishing, Nghe An has implemented many synchronous solutions. Along with promoting propaganda and mobilizing fishermen, the province has issued many documents implementing the Fisheries Law.
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The joint force including Border Guard, Fisheries Surveillance and Information - Communications distributes leaflets on protecting aquatic resources to fishermen before going offshore fishing. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Along with issuing policies to support fishermen going to sea, the province also established an interdisciplinary team to control boats entering and leaving the port; rectify fishing vessel registration; establish interdisciplinary teams to regularly patrol, propagate, remind and handle illegal fishing activities, and protect coastal aquatic resources. From the end of 2021, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with the Provincial Border Guard Command to inspect and make a list ofIUU fishing vesselsand fishing vessels at high risk of IUU violations to periodically send weekly and monthly handling plans to competent authorities.
Nghe An has a coastline of over 82 km, with a sea area of nearly 9,000 ha.km2, the potential for seafood exploitation is huge. With a fleet of up to 3,420 vessels, of which 2,523 are 6m or more, the fishing force is quite large; the seafood exploitation industry is diverse; the annual catch is approximately 200,000 tons. At its peak, the whole province had 16,982 fishing workers, inthere,Offshore fishing is 8,728 people, offshore fishing is 3,114 people and coastal fishing is 5,140 people.
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Fisheries Surveillance Force of the provincial interdisciplinary team inspects procedures for a fishing boat going out to sea to catch fish in coastal waters. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Hai |
Based on inspection and supervision, in the first 9 months of 2022, the provincial authorities detected 83/79 fishing vessels violating foreign waters, of which 4 vessels violated twice; handled 7 vessels with a total fine of 175 million VND for the act of "Not maintaining voyage monitoring equipment during operations at sea for fishing vessels with the largest length from 15m to under 24m", revoked the right to use the captain's diploma and certificate for 4 months and 15 days for 2 vessels; continued to investigate and verify the remaining cases for handling according to the provisions of law; through 15 patrols and controls at sea for 116 days, the interdisciplinary team inspected 1,210 vehicles, detected and handled 62 cases/62 subjects/61 vehicles, and fined 211.3 million VND.
Pressure, new challenges
As this is the third review in more than 4 years, the EC will consider deciding toremove yellow cardor being fined a Red Card for our country's seafood exploitation activities, the EC will randomly select from 28 coastal provinces for inspection. Because Nghe An has a large number of fishing fleets, the probability of being selected for inspection is quite high. At the working session with Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town, the provincial IUU Steering Committee assessed that although the management of IUU exploitation activities has improved, there are still some limitations and weaknesses. One of the major limitations is that the rate of vessels not installed with VMS voyage monitoring systems in the province is still high.
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Since 2020, due to reduced fishery resources and ineffective fishing, fishing boats have spent more time on shore and fishermen have had difficulty maintaining VMS signals at a cost of VND250,000-500,000/month. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
According to regulations, the rate must be over 98%, but by the end of September, Nghe An only had 1,133/1,167 fishing vessels installed with VMS, reaching a rate of 97.09%. However, on the National Fishing Vessel Monitoring System, the number of fishing vessels installed with VMS in Nghe An only reached 92.63% (1,081 vessels), so it is very difficult to convince the EC. Fishermen in the districts have petitioned for additional support to replace Movimar with new VMS equipment but have not received it. In addition to the above number of vessels with VMS signal disconnection, the province still has 34 fishing vessels that have not installed VMS, of which, 5 vessels have installed the equipment but have not been activated; 17 vessels are on shore so they are not activated, 7 are undergoing conversion and transfer procedures; 5 vessels are seized, transferred or on shore but the owners are absent.
(Representative of Nghe An Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shared)
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Based on the inspection, the working group of the Provincial IUU Steering Committee requested localities to coordinate with the Border Guard to identify a number of fishing vessels on shore, of unknown origin, whether they were fishing at sea or not, but did not maintain connection to the VMS route monitoring signal. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
According to the assessment of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the reason for the difference in the rate of ships installing VMS in the province is because the province has 52 Movimar devices that were previously equipped but are now damaged and have had their services cut off, so the Directorate of Fisheries has put them on the list of not yet installed.
Mr. Bui Xuan Truc - Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quynh Luu district said: Most of the Movimar equipment for fishing boats over 24m in Quynh Luu that were previously installed were used goods from other provinces, the equipment is decades old, in the marine environment, quickly breaks down but now there are no replacement parts.
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Supervising and requesting a coastal trawler violating fishing grounds. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
The second limitation and weakness is the increasing number of fishing vessels losing connection to VMS at sea: in the first 9 months of 2022 alone, the whole province had 8,403 vessels, including 3,430 fishing vessels over 15m - 24m and 4,973 fishing vessels over 24m in length violating the connection. Notably, 224 fishing vessels lost connection to VMS for more than 10 days at sea and must be handled, including 90 vessels with a length of 15m - 24m and 134 vessels with a length of 24m or more. Similarly, during the same period, the number of fishing vessels that crossed the permitted boundary line at sea was 218, which is very worrying.
The representative of the Fisheries Department confirmed: There are many reasons for losing VMS connection, such as old, damaged equipment, the power system supplying the VMS equipment is broken, or the ship returns to port to end its voyage, so the ship owner turns off the equipment, the subscription fee has expired; fishermen use the excuse of fear of fire or illegal fishing to turn off the power... On the other hand, the quality of service on VMS is not guaranteed, so it is difficult to handle.
The third limitation is about the catch output: According to regulations, the statistical catch through the port is allowed to differ by 20% from the actual. However, due to the rate of monitored output, the catch output at Nghe An ports is still quite low and many fishing vessels have not entered the port to load goods, so the data is uncertain. On the other hand, although the EC recommends that exported seafood must have an origin, since 2020, no vessel from the province has requested traceability confirmation...
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Along with patrolling and imposing fines, the fisheries control force also handles illegal fishing nets and gear left in natural waters that affect the safety of fishing vessels while traveling. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
To prepare well for the European Commission's inspection,Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee,The Head of the Provincial IUU Steering Committee requested the Fishing Port Management Board and districts to coordinate in reviewing data on catch output; continue to propagate and strengthen inspection and supervision of vessels that have not installed or lost VMS connection signals; clarify the situation of fishing vessels that are on shore, do not maintain connection, and transferred vessels to complete procedures to delete VMS from the system.
Currently, to support fishermen and gradually remove the Yellow Card, the province is developing a separate policy to support offshore fishermen. Accordingly, along with the monthly VMS connection maintenance fee, fishing vessels previously installed with Movimar will be supported to install new equipment./.