With a unique geographical location, the coastline stretches from East to West, being one of the four key fishing grounds in the country, the seafood exploitation industry of Ca Mau province has been formed for a long time and developed rapidly. In addition to large seaports such as Song Doc, Rach Goc, Cai Doi Vam, Khanh Hoi, there are many small seaports, always bustling with fishing boats coming and going. The East coast, bordering Bac Lieu province, has Ganh Hao estuary (in Tan Thuan commune, Dam Doi district); the West coast, bordering Kien Giang province, has Tieu Dua estuary (in Khanh Tien commune, U Minh district).
Previously, due to poor planning in exploiting and protecting marine resources, as well as allowing ships to exploit spontaneously and too quickly, especially destructive forms of exploitation, coastal exploitation..., resources have gradually depleted in recent years. This is one of the many reasons why Ca Mau fishermen illegally exploit foreign waters and are arrested, leading to many consequences...
This is not the case in Ca Mau alone. Since then, on October 23, 2017, the European Commission (EC) has issued a "yellow card" to the Vietnamese seafood industry, with contents related to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, also known as IUU.
Realizing the importance of the EC’s recommendations in combating IUU, over the past 6 years, Ca Mau has been proactive, making efforts, and contributing with the whole country to remove the “yellow card”. Looking back at the 6-year journey, we can see all the achievements that Ca Mau has determined to do, with the highest sense of responsibility and concentration throughout the political system.
Captain Vo Thanh Bang, Head of Song Doc Border Control Station, introduces software to track and monitor fishing boats entering and leaving the estuary.
The pioneering installation of equipment to monitor fishing vessels’ journeys with interconnected software in managing exploitation activities on the network environment between units has been fully and strictly implemented, demonstrating Ca Mau’s determination. This is the path towards strict management and responsible exploitation of seafood. The obvious result is that since the beginning of the year, Ca Mau has had no fishing vessels violating foreign waters.
However, the biggest difficulty of the province at present is that there are only 2 fishing ports (Song Doc and Rach Goc) that are declared qualified to accommodate large ships. Therefore, it is very difficult for ships from Ganh Hao estuary (Dam Doi) to go all the way to Rach Goc town (Ngoc Hien) to load products. Or Khanh Hoi, Huong Mai (U Minh), Cai Doi Vam (Phu Tan) have to go to Song Doc fishing port (Tran Van Thoi), which is time-consuming, costly, reduces product quality, and is unsafe during bad weather.
Behind each ship to the mainland are goods loaded and unloaded, including people. Concentrating according to regulations at the above 2 locations will not ensure capacity and also go against the planning and socio-economic development orientation at the remaining seaports. The reality is that there are currently about 70 private fishing ports, as the "home ground" of fishing boat owners, seafood purchasing and processing enterprises. When the ships return, they often choose this place to load goods, for convenience in production, asset management... which according to regulations does not meet the conditions to declare a fishing port or fishing port. However, if banned, fishing logistics cannot be guaranteed, leaving serious consequences, causing great disruption to seafood exploitation activities and many other related complex issues.
Song Doc fishing port currently has no room for expansion (due to lack of land). If it is forced to strictly follow the EC regulations on combating IUU, it will be “broken”, because it cannot receive thousands of vehicles from inside and outside the province to load goods after exploitation.
A recently emerging issue, reported by Mr. Nguyen Viet Trieu, Deputy Head of the Department of Fisheries of Ca Mau province, is that the situation of buying and selling fishing equipment between provinces has not been strictly controlled. The vessels still have quotas, bearing the control number of this province, but are said to have been sold to people in other localities, and then reported as participating in illegal fishing. In fact, in the first months of this year, 2 fishing vessels from Ca Mau were sold to Kien Giang province, and then reported as illegal fishing, and were detained by foreign countries. Currently, the person in charge of anti-IUU work at the commune level is mainly a part-time job, so it is very difficult for the vessel owners to fulfill their commitments and take pictures of the fishing vessels inshore every 15 days (to prove the loss of connection signal). This reality is due to lack of funding and lack of staff to implement, especially in areas with many fishing vessels such as Song Doc town, Khanh Hoi commune, etc.
“When implementing the fight against IUU, we encountered many difficulties. With great efforts, we have achieved certain results, especially thanks to the expertise and determination of authorities at all levels,” said Mr. Le Van Su, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ca Mau province.
However, Mr. Le Van Su said there are still many concerns, including the need to focus more and more drastically on the management of fishing vessel registration and inspection. For vessels that lose connection offshore, according to the law, within 10 days the ship owner must bring the vessel to shore to comply with the penalty. However, there are cases where the ship owner only brings the vessel to shore after 10 days. "This period of time is very sensitive, the risk of the vessel illegally exploiting foreign waters is very high. As a result, when an incident occurs, the province must take responsibility, while the province does not have a legal basis to force the ship owner to come ashore immediately," Mr. Le Van Su clearly stated his opinion .
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development requested Ca Mau: “Focus on implementing strong measures to prevent and not let local fishing vessels continue to violate illegal fishing in foreign waters. Focus on investigating and prosecuting brokers and liaisons who bring fishing vessels to illegally exploit seafood in foreign waters; assign specific responsibilities to agencies and functional forces to closely monitor and supervise subjects at high risk of violations, and attach responsibility to heads of Party committees and authorities at all levels if fishing vessels continue to violate illegal fishing in foreign waters. Organize the implementation of the Project on Converting a number of seafood exploitation occupations that affect resources and the ecological environment, approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 208/QD-TTg dated March 10, 2023”. (According to Official Dispatch No. 4483/BNN-KN, sent to the Provincial People's Committee on the serious and effective implementation of the task of combating IUU fishing, preparing to work with the 4th Inspection Delegation of the European Commission).
Tran Nguyen
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