Quang Ngai province has thousands of fishing vessels with various professions, operating in traditional fishing grounds. Over the years, Quang Ngai Border Guard has always accompanied fishermen in all aspects so that each ship and each fisherman is a "living milestone", both producing at sea and actively participating in protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland.
Colonel Tran Tuan Anh presents the national flag to fishermen in Tinh Ky commune, Quang Ngai city. Photo: Truc Ha
Quang Ngai has a fleet of 4,242 fishing vessels, of which 1,743 vessels regularly fish offshore for long periods of time. In fact, while fishermen are working at sea, they face many difficulties and dangers due to natural disasters, storms, damaged vessels, broken engines, sick fishermen, etc., requiring rescue and relief support.
From 2023 to present, Quang Ngai province has experienced 70 natural disasters, accidents, incidents, and fires, causing 40 fishing boats to sink, burn, and be damaged, and 37 people to die, go missing, or be injured, causing hundreds of billions of dong in damage. Therefore, accompanying and being a solid support for fishermen to confidently stay at sea has always been identified by the Party Committee and the Provincial Border Guard Command as an important political task. Each officer and soldier has the awareness and responsibility to connect with fishermen because they are the extended arms of the Border Guard in carrying out the task of protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland.
Over the past years, the Party Committee and Command of the Quang Ngai Border Guard have made efforts to concretize and put into practice Directive 01/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on organizing the movement of the entire population to participate in protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security in the new situation. Accordingly, the Quang Ngai Border Guard has advised the authorities of districts, towns and cities in the coastal border area to establish 97 self-managed boat teams to unite and safely participate in protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security at sea with 931 vehicles/7,547 members; 121 self-managed security and order teams with 614 members; 10 security and order teams at wharves with 167 members.
Through implementation, the members have promoted the spirit and responsibility of providing the Border Guard force and functional agencies with many valuable sources of information, actively participating in protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands of the Fatherland, serving the immediate and long-term struggle well; helping the Border Guard force, local Party committees and authorities to resolve many complicated cases and issues in the province's sea border areas, contributing to the good implementation of the tasks of economic, cultural and social development of the locality.
However, in the past, Quang Ngai province was always on the list of provinces with the most fishing vessels violating foreign waters and other violations of maritime laws, which was one of the reasons why the European Commission (EC) issued a "yellow card" warning to the Vietnamese fisheries industry. In an effort to remove the "yellow card" with the whole country, the Quang Ngai Border Guard has actively promoted and mobilized, combined with sanctions and deterrence for violations. In 2023, the provincial Border Guard sanctioned 58 cases/58 subjects with over 10 billion VND.
Entering 2024, the Quang Ngai Border Guard has comprehensively deployed working measures, coordinated with local authorities and functional agencies to organize forces and means to strictly manage and protect activities in the province's sea and island border areas, and resolutely combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The provincial Border Guard has organized over 70 patrols and controls of river mouths, inlets, fishing ports, and sea areas, promptly detecting and correcting fishing vessels showing signs of IUU violations.
The Quang Ngai Border Guard Command also requested its subordinate units to resolutely carry out the tasks of managing and protecting borders, seas, and islands according to their assigned functions and tasks. Further strengthen the management of fishing vessels, especially fishing vessels with a length of 15m or more; coordinate with local coastal authorities and functional forces to verify and specifically conclude cases of disconnection of journey monitoring equipment, and strictly handle violations by ship owners and fishermen.
In addition, the Quang Ngai Border Guard also has many practical activities to accompany fishermen to stay at sea and go offshore. That is to proactively mobilize human resources and means to search and rescue fishing boats and fishermen who have accidents or are sick while working at sea. The Quang Ngai Border Guard Command has coordinated with the Viettel Military Industry and Telecommunications Group to deploy software, equipment to manage and control fishing boats and send communication messages to fishing boat owners at 11 Border Guard control stations across the province, meeting the requirements of the task of preventing and combating IUU fishing , removing the EC's "yellow card" warning.
At the end of April, the Quang Ngai Border Guard Command coordinated with sponsors to donate 8 mobile phones, 3,500 national flags and hotline keychains to fishermen and people in the coastal border area under the management of Sa Huynh Border Guard Station (Pho Thach Ward, Duc Pho Town) and Sa Ky Port Border Guard Station (Tinh Ky Commune, Quang Ngai City). The compact keychains have the phone number of the Border Guard Station printed on them, so people can call 24/7 to inform the unit of any information related to sea and island sovereignty, security and order in the area. The distribution of hotline keychains demonstrates the initiative of the Border Guard with the people, thereby promoting the awareness and responsibility of each person as well as promoting the strength of the people to join the Border Guard in firmly protecting the territorial sovereignty and national border security.
Colonel Tran Tuan Anh, Commander of Quang Ngai Border Guard
Comment (0)