Removing the IUU yellow card: Strictly and thoroughly handling violating fishing vessels

With the direction of the Prime Minister and localities in participating in and improving the recommendations of the European Commission (EC) Inspection Delegation, Vietnam's efforts to remove the "yellow card" are improving a lot.

To better understand the efforts in the past and solutions in the coming time, VNA reporter had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung - Director of the Department of Fisheries Surveillance (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).

Binh Dinh province has installed 99.29% of equipment to monitor fishing routes. Illustrative photo: Vu Sinh/VNA

It has been nearly 7 years since Vietnam received a "yellow card" warning for combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing). Has there been any progress in combating IUU fishing compared to before, sir?

With the attention and direction of the Government, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, along with the efforts of localities, after nearly 7 years of Vietnam's efforts to remove the "yellow card", the fisheries industry has made a lot of progress.

Firstly, the legal and institutional framework has been relatively complete, meeting the requirements for sustainable exploitation in the country, as well as meeting regional and international fisheries regulations.

Second, we are currently managing and monitoring fishing vessels using information technology and digitization on national databases as well as national software to uniformly manage fishing vessels in Vietnam.

Third, we have established a system of verification, certification, and traceability to ensure the legality of seafood products when exported to Europe and other markets upon request.

Fourth, currently, law enforcement forces nationwide such as the central fisheries control, coast guard, border guards... are gradually improving and strengthening inspection, control and management of fisheries more closely. In addition to propaganda, administrative violations of illegal fishing are strictly handled.

Sir, what are the difficulties and limitations in implementing the EU's requirements in combating IUU fishing?

Besides the achievements, there are still many difficulties and problems.

Specifically, the characteristics of small-scale fishing with a very large number of fishing vessels exploiting fragmentedly throughout Vietnam's waters. Therefore, management is more difficult than in other countries in the region. Besides, we have now increased communication and raised awareness of the fishing community, but there is still a group of about 5-10% of fishermen who do not comply with the law in illegal fishing, deliberately violating....

Furthermore, with the characteristics of Vietnam having many river mouths and seaports, inspection and control of fishing vessels in coastal areas is difficult.

In addition, although the authorities have been strengthened, there is still not enough manpower to control all river mouths and estuaries when fishing boats leave, enter or anchor at ports.

After the inspections, what are the EC's recommendations for Vietnam to remove the IUU "yellow card", sir?

The EC's recommendations are really useful for the development of Vietnam's fisheries industry with immediate solutions to remove the "yellow card" warning and, more importantly, towards a long-term sustainable fisheries industry.

Firstly, the EC recommends that we complete and strengthen the legal and institutional framework to meet the requirements of domestic fisheries development, as well as the criteria and requirements for environmental protection and aquatic resources protection of regional and international fisheries organizations. This is the first and fundamental thing that we have completed.

In addition, the EC recommends good management of fleets and monitoring and supervision of fishing fleet activities at sea, ensuring that all fishing vessels from the time they leave port for fishing and when they arrive at port must ensure legality and ensure that their exploitation complies with Vietnamese and international laws.

The EC also recommends ensuring the verification, certification and traceability of seafood products exported, especially to the European market, to ensure transparency and legality. In particular, the EC also recommends strict control of seafood products imported through seaports, to avoid businesses mixing domestic and illegally imported raw materials and then exporting them to other countries.

In addition, the EC believes that illegal fishing activities need to be strictly and thoroughly handled to prevent and eventually end the situation of fishing vessels violating foreign waters. This is the key point that neighboring countries also recommended to the EC regarding the situation of Vietnamese fishing vessels violating foreign waters.

Another important point that the EC recommends is to strictly control fishing vessels that install voyage monitoring devices. In case any fishing vessel disconnects in violation of regulations, or disconnects for more than 10 days to 6 months, this behavior must be investigated, verified, and strictly handled.

To remove the IUU "yellow card", what tasks and solutions has the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed, sir?

In the past time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has had many solutions to advise the Government, the Prime Minister as well as direct localities to implement.

The Ministry has also developed a detailed plan to deploy tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing and sent it to localities, ministries, branches and relevant units for implementation in the period from now until before the EC inspection team visits Vietnam.

For long-term solutions to develop sustainable fisheries, the Ministry is developing plans and organizing the implementation of projects, programs and plans approved by the Government.

In the coming time, the Ministry will increase marine farming, gradually reduce output and exploitation frequency to balance natural aquatic resources as well as promote the protection of aquatic resources; plan marine conservation areas, restore ecosystems, release seeds to regenerate aquatic resources... these are important tasks of the fisheries sector in the coming time.

In addition, the Ministry also has solutions to create policies and mechanisms to support fishermen in changing their jobs to ensure livelihoods for coastal fishing communities.

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