Strictly implement the 2017 Fisheries Law, firmly grasp the vessel logbook

After more than 1 year of implementing Directive 45/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on a number of urgent tasks and solutions to overcome the European Commission's warning on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,Coastal localities shall issue fishing license quotas to fishing vessels, ensuring that 100% of fishing vessels are licensed according to regulations.

On the morning of May 7, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to deploy urgent tasks to overcome the yellow card warning of the European Commission. Coastal border posts and stations; management boards of fishing ports and coastal districts attended the conference. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Fishing ports and coastal border guard units monitor, control and supervise fishing vessels in accordance with regulations on fishing logs; control fishing vessels entering and leaving ports; most of the seafood output arriving at fishing ports has been updated.

To address the 9 recommendations of the European Commission on IUU fishing, the Fisheries Department has upgraded the Shore Station connected to the Central Shore Station of the Directorate of Fisheries to manage fishing vessels operating in the sea areas through position reporting by text message.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee inspected the diary recording at fishing ports. Photo: Xuan Hoang

At the conference, border guard units and fishing port management boards said that in recent times, local authorities have made efforts to educate fishermen about the implementation of the 2017 Fisheries Law.

However, the most difficult problem today is that fishermen often export and dock many ships at the same time, making it difficult to inspect and control.

People's awareness of complying with State regulations is still limited; keeping logs, declaring output through ports, and providing information before docking is still difficult for some fishermen.

Quynh Luu fishermen prepare to go to sea at Lach Quen fishing port. Photo: Xuan Hoang

The fishing port management board re-checks the facilities to serve the entry and exit of ships. Performs well the cleaning of the fishing port and some other related issues.

In 2018 and the first 4 months of 2019, Nghe An authorities inspected and controlled 80 trips at sea, inspected 4,158 vehicles, and administratively sanctioned 320 vehicles for violating regulations on illegal seafood exploitation with a fine of over 1 billion VND.