Integrating fisheries data into national databases for monitoring and management
That was the direction of the Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, at an online meeting with 28 coastal provinces and cities on the results of implementing solutions to remove the EC yellow card.
The meeting took place on the morning of January 14 under the chairmanship of comrade Tran Hong Ha - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the National Steering Committee on IUU from Hanoi. Also attending were representatives of ministries and branches who are members of the National Steering Committee.
At Nghe An bridge, comrade Nguyen Van De - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and comrade Phung Thanh Vinh - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development co-chaired the conference. Also attending were representatives of relevant departments and branches, the Provincial Border Guard Command, representatives of border posts and coastal localities.
Synchronized participation, clear transformation
At the conference, representatives of the National Steering Committee on IUU reported on the results of 7 years of implementing the EC yellow card recommendation (from October 23, 2017) and the results of implementing Directive No. 32-CT/TW dated April 10, 2024 of the Secretariat, Resolution No. 52/NQ-CP dated April 22, 2024 of the Government. Accordingly, along with supplementing and perfecting the legal framework, the work of fleet management, monitoring, supervision and control of fishing vessels; tracing the origin of exploited aquatic products, handling IUU fishing acts according to the recommendations of the European Commission at the most recent working session has so far had significant and clear changes.
Along with the issuance of legal framework regulations on management and handling, the whole country has reviewed and counted the national fleet of 84,536 vessels (as of January 6, 2025), of which, the update on VN-Fishbase reached 98.9%. Fishing vessels with a length of 15 m or more operating in aquatic exploitation have installed voyage monitoring equipment reaching 100% (23,312 vessels). The whole country has completed the dossier to prosecute 32 cases related to brokerage, collusion, illegal exit to bring fishing vessels and fishermen to illegally exploit in foreign waters.
In 2023, the whole country handled 4,022 cases with a total amount of over 89 billion VND, in 2024 handled 4,314 cases with an amount of nearly 100 billion VND. For violations of VMS disconnection in 2023, handled 543 cases with an amount of over 16 billion VND; in 2024 handled 1,085 cases with an amount of over 35 billion VND.
In Nghe An, as of December 31, 2024, the whole province had 3,119 fishing boats, of which 614 boats had completed registration, 98.77% of fishing boats were equipped with VMS equipment, and 290 cases were fined with a total amount of VND 5.34 billion.
Clearly assess the situation and take more drastic action
In addition to the above outstanding results, at the meeting, representatives of ministries, branches and localities clarified the remaining shortcomings and limitations to find solutions to overcome them.
Steering Committee members from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several localities presented the results of the fight against fishing vessels that violate the law; new difficulties arising in handling disconnected vessels, old and dilapidated vessels that do not go fishing but are not dismantled or sold; and proposed a number of solutions to handle...
Currently, although the authorities and localities have made efforts to intervene, the situation of illegal fishing in foreign waters still exists. The "3 no" fishing vessels have not been completely handled; the renewal and issuance of fishing licenses according to regulations is still slow, the rate is not high. The results of verifying and handling violations of disconnection and post-investment port infrastructure management are still inadequate and limited, causing the work of statistics and tracing of exploited seafood output to have a low rate...
Based on the proposals of ministries, branches and localities, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha basically agreed with the report and acknowledged the efforts of ministries, branches and localities. He also noted that this is the 12th meeting of the Steering Committee and the 7th year of implementing the EC's recommendations, so he requested ministries and localities to closely follow the conclusions of previous meetings to organize implementation, supervision, management and as a basis for evaluation. He requested ministries and localities, especially those with weaknesses and limitations, to clearly state the results and limitations and associate them with responsibility assessment.
Fisheries management is quite broad, so there must be technology and data infrastructure to monitor and manage. In the near future, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must re-evaluate this database to monitor and manage onshore, at sea, and fishing grounds; learn from the experiences of localities and ministries that operate well to deploy and replicate. In the first quarter of 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to quickly build a database on fishing vessels integrated into the national database...
In the long term, there needs to be solutions for managing and monitoring fishing vessels from shore. If the fishing port infrastructure is inadequate, it is necessary to develop a plan and add funds for dredging and upgrading. It is necessary to completely handle the situation of lost connection signals due to poor quality of VMS journey monitoring signals of network operators; strengthen the records to strictly handle the situation of fishermen deliberately fishing in foreign waters as well as the act of intentionally dismantling sealed VMS equipment on fishing vessels...
