Promote the implementation of urgent and key tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing in 2025 in the province.

On March 31, 2025, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 1387/KH-UBND to deploy urgent and key tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing in 2025 in the province.

Based on the objectives, requirements, tasks and solutions set out, the Provincial People's Committee requests relevant departments, branches and localities to regularly inspect, urge and promptly resolve difficulties and problems; at the same time, focus on effectively implementing the following tasks:

On management and direction

Relevant departments, branches, People's Committees of coastal districts and cities continue to direct the serious and effective implementation of Directive No. 32-CT/TW dated April 10, 2024 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in combating IUU fishing and sustainable development of the fisheries sector; Official Dispatch No. 49/CD-TTg dated May 15, 2024 of the Prime Minister on focusing on detecting, investigating and verifying information to handle violations of regulations on the Fishing Vessel Monitoring System (VMS); Plan No. 309-KH/TU dated May 14, 2024 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee; Plan No. 3361/KH-UBND dated July 25, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee and other relevant documents of the Central Government on combating IUU fishing.

Heads of relevant agencies and People's Committees of coastal districts and cities continue to seriously and effectively carry out the task of combating IUU fishing and arrange sufficient staff with capacity, qualifications, spirit and responsibility to carry out the task; resolutely and strictly handle organizations and individuals who commit IUU fishing violations that affect the results of the fight against IUU fishing in Ninh Thuan province in particular, the whole country in general and national interests.

On propaganda and mass mobilization work

Continue to promote propaganda and education for fishermen, relevant organizations and individuals, and seafood processing enterprises in the province to fully implement regulations at all levels on implementing solutions to combat IUU fishing, overcoming the EC's "Yellow Card" warning. Research and innovate more vivid and visual forms of propaganda, ensuring the provision of complete and timely information so that fishermen and relevant parties can raise their awareness of law compliance and not violate IUU fishing.

Assign the District People's Committee to direct the People's Committees of coastal communes, wards and towns to propagate and mobilize to raise awareness and sense of law compliance for ship owners, captains, fishermen and owners of logistics service establishments for fishing. Grasp the area, propagate to each local household, prevent from the mind of ship owners who intend to illegally exploit in foreign waters. Propaganda and mobilization work must ensure the principle: "People know, people understand, people believe, people follow and people do".

Relevant sectors and localities need to focus on reviewing, zoning, and making a list of fishing vessels at risk of illegal fishing in foreign waters (focusing on the group of vessels that regularly fish in the waters of the southern provinces). Regularly monitor and propagate to prevent this group of vessels from carrying out illegal fishing in foreign waters.

On fleet management and monitoring, inspection and control of fishing vessel activities

Fishermen in Ca Na (Thuan Nam) exploit seafood in accordance with the law. Photo: Van Ny

Continue to inspect and review all fishing vessels in the province to ensure a firm grasp of the current situation (number of expired registrations, licenses, food safety; fishing vessels that have been sold outside the province but have not been transferred, fishing vessels operating outside Ninh Thuan waters, fishing vessels that have not been equipped with VMS equipment, ...).

Make a list and clearly understand the location and anchorage of fishing vessels with expired fishing licenses and vessels without installed fishing vessel monitoring devices. Local authorities and the Provincial Border Guard coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and Environment to regularly monitor, inspect, and report on the status of fishing vessels that have not installed monitoring devices and vessels with expired fishing licenses, and compile reports according to regulations.

The People's Committees of coastal localities strengthen coordination with specialized agencies and functional forces to prevent the emergence of "3 no" fishing vessels. The Provincial Border Guard Command continues to direct coastal Border Guard Stations and Stations to strictly control fishing vessels entering and leaving ports to ensure that "3 no" fishing vessels do not participate in activities at sea. The Department of Agriculture and Environment advises the Provincial People's Committee on a job conversion mechanism for the group of "3 no" fishing vessels that are temporarily registered under local management.

Inspect and control 100% of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports at coastal border posts and stations in the province. In particular, fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more must ensure that the journey monitoring device is turned on 24/7 when entering and leaving ports. Absolutely do not allow any fishing vessel that does not ensure the title and minimum safety of the fishing vessel crew; fishing vessels that do not have or do not turn on the journey monitoring device when completing exit and entry procedures; all fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more must dock at the designated port.

Resolutely and strictly handle cases of fishing vessels violating IUU fishing, fishing vessels with a maximum length of 15m or more selling fish, anchoring at beaches in the province; strictly and thoroughly handle according to regulations fishing vessels that are not registered, not licensed, not inspected, fishing vessels that do not meet the conditions for participating in aquatic resource exploitation.

Inspect and control fishing vessels entering and leaving the fishing port in accordance with regulations to ensure control of 100% of fishing vessels from other provinces unloading products at the port, and 100% of fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more of the province entering and leaving the port. All fishing vessels leaving the port must have full documents (registration, inspection, licensing, fishing vessel marking) and comply with regulations.

Organize a 24/7 fishing vessel monitoring system to promptly detect fishing vessels that do not maintain or disable their voyage monitoring equipment during operations at sea, and fishing vessels that exceed permitted boundaries at sea to promptly warn.

Control to ensure that the fishing vessel monitoring equipment operates continuously from the time the fishing vessel leaves the port until it arrives at the port and makes notifications and submits the fishing logbook according to regulations; checks and compares information in the fishing logbook to ensure it is consistent with the fishing vessel monitoring data. For fishing vessels that exceed the permitted boundary at sea and lose connection signal for 10 days at sea, they must be handled according to regulations immediately after the vessel returns to shore.

Compile a list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating local regulations on illegal fishing and send it to central and local fisheries management agencies. Strengthen management and control of fishing vessels from other provinces operating in Ninh Thuan province, establish a mechanism for sharing and exchanging information between relevant localities to promptly prevent and handle IUU violations.

On confirmation, certification and traceability of exploited aquatic products

Localities and units strictly implement the confirmation, certification and traceability of domestically exploited aquatic products according to the instructions in Circular No. 21/2018/TT-BNNPTNT dated November 15, 2018 and Circular No. 01/2022/TT-BNNPTNT dated January 18, 2022 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment). The records of confirmation and certification of the origin of aquatic materials are complete, systematically stored, easy to access, meeting the requirements for traceability according to; strictly prohibit and strictly handle cases of legalizing records (if there is sufficient basis for criminal prosecution). Strictly implement the "Electronic traceability software system for exploited aquatic products" (eCDT) developed by the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance.

Fishermen buy and sell fresh anchovies at Ca Na port (Thuan Nam). Photo: Van Ny

Strengthen the organization of monitoring the output of aquatic products caught by fishing vessels inside and outside the province and unloading aquatic products at designated fishing ports of the province. Ensure control of 100% of fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more docking at designated ports to unload aquatic products; implement the submission of fishing logs, purchasing logs, and transshipment logs in accordance with regulations, and check and control logs to ensure that the logs are in accordance with regulations.

Allocate sufficient resources (human resources and funding) for forces participating in IUU inspection and production monitoring at designated ports. Ensure that inspection and control of fishing vessels and aquatic products from exploitation are continuous in all cases. Inspect and control fishing vessels leaving and arriving at ports to ensure the prescribed rate.

On law enforcement and handling of violations

Implement strong measures to prevent the province's fishing vessels from violating illegal fishing in foreign waters; focus on reviewing, fully counting and classifying fishing vessels at risk of violating IUU fishing (fishing vessel number, name of ship owner, name of captain, number of crew members, fishing profession, fishing grounds, currently anchored in which locality, number of original vessels, number of transferred vessels, leased vessels (if any), ...).

Establish a working group to work with the southern provinces to coordinate propaganda, mobilization, management, and supervision of import and export activities. Based on that, there will be specific plans for each fishing vessel (including mobilization to change fishing occupations).

Investigate and punish 100% of cases of illegal fishing in foreign waters (if any).

All levels, sectors, functional forces, and local authorities coordinate to verify fishing vessels that have been warned of exceeding permitted boundaries at sea from 2023 to present, complete documents, proceed with handling or propose competent authorities to handle according to regulations (if any).

Verify, investigate and strictly handle organizations and individuals who broker ships and fishermen from Ninh Thuan to illegally exploit aquatic resources in foreign waters; acts of exploiting fishing vessels and exploiting aquatic resources for smuggling and organizing illegal border crossings; and prosecute these acts according to the provisions of the Penal Code (if any).

Focus on investigating, handling and penalizing 100% of cases of violations of regulations on losing VMS connection for more than 10 days at sea, fishing vessels not transferring ownership as prescribed. Strictly handle violations of fishing vessels sending VMS equipment on other fishing vessels, fishing vessels assisting and transporting VMS equipment of other fishing vessels (if any).

Launch a peak period of patrolling, inspecting and controlling with coordination between functional agencies and strictly punishing 100% of IUU fishing acts according to regulations; prevent fishing vessels from going to sea or docking at fishing ports when they do not have full documents, do not install journey monitoring equipment according to regulations or do not comply with the regulations of the Fishing Port Management Board during the process of leaving and docking at fishing ports.

Regularly organize inspections and checks of anti-IUU fishing activities at fishing ports and anti-IUU fishing activities of local authorities. Synthesize and store records of violation handling results and update them into the software system to monitor and manage administrative violation handling activities in the fisheries sector.

During the implementation process, if any difficulties or problems arise, departments, branches and localities shall promptly inform the Department of Agriculture and Environment for synthesis and reporting to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and resolution.

TS

Source: https://baoninhthuan.com.vn/news/152469p1c30/day-manh-thuc-hien-cac-nhiem-vu-giai-phap-cap-bach-trong-tamve-chong-khai-thac-iuu-nam-2025-tren-dia-ban-tinh.htm