As of the end of June 2024, the province still had 1,489 fishing vessels with a maximum length of 6m or more that were not officially registered. According to regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, fishing vessels with a length of 6m or more must be registered in the national fishing vessel register and issued a fishing vessel registration certificate. Currently, localities are urgently implementing many solutions to ensure that fishing vessels from 6m to under 12m are registered in accordance with regulations.
Of the 1,489 fishing vessels in the province that have not been officially registered, Van Don district has 640 fishing vessels from 6m to under 12m, the most in the province. In early July 2024, Van Don district established a working group to propagate and guide the registration of fishing vessels from 6m to under 12m and conduct a general review of non-fishing vessels in Van Don district. The working group is responsible for propagating and providing professional guidance for ship owners to complete the application for fishing vessel registration certificates and fishing licenses for fishing vessels from 6m to 12m according to the list. At the same time, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Tax Department of Cam Pha - Van Don - Co To area, the People's Committees of communes and wards to deploy the issuance of fishing vessel registration certificates and fishing licenses for fishing vessels, striving to complete before July 30, 2024. For communes and wards, continue to conduct a general review of all non-fishing vessels in the area; provide professional guidance on the components of the dossier for registration and inspection of non-fishing vessels. The local Economic Infrastructure Department shall preside over and coordinate with the District Police and relevant agencies and units to implement the declaration according to the form, registration and inspection dossier for non-fishing vessels before July 30, 2024.
By mobilizing units to focus on removing difficulties and obstacles, in just the first 15 days of July 2024, the Van Don District Public Administration Center received and appraised 55 sets of documents to carry out registration procedures and grant fishing licenses for vessels that have not been officially registered. Mr. Ha Van Ninh, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Van Don District, said: In fact, the official registration of fishing vessels is facing many difficulties. One of the main reasons is that the subjects directly participating in the fishing and aquaculture profession are mainly from the agricultural, forestry and fishery professions, including local people and people from outside the locality. Access to legal policies in general, in the field of fisheries, is not yet complete and timely, leading to the implementation of some regulations that are not strict. The district continues to focus on supporting and guiding ship owners to register fishing vessels according to regulations, striving to complete it as soon as possible in accordance with the direction of the province.
Ha Long City ranks second in the province with the number of unregistered fishing vessels with 428 vessels. Immediately after receiving the list of announcements from the Provincial People's Committee, Ha Long City requested functional units to urgently review, compare, and adjust (if any) the list of fishing vessels with the largest length from 6m to under 12m that have been newly built, converted, bought, sold, donated, and are operating but not yet registered according to regulations. The city also requested the Economic Department to announce the schedule for checking the technical parameters of fishing vessels at the People's Committees of communes and wards. In reality, the appraisal of documents is also facing many difficulties, mainly related to tax procedures.
Mr. Le Van Thang, Deputy Head of Economic Department (Ha Long City) shared: Fishing vessels with length from 6m to under 12m mostly do not have value added invoices when building or converting ships, so they cannot be granted registration fees, one of the mandatory procedures for granting seafood exploitation licenses according to regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Many ship owners build new ships without approval, buy and sell but do not carry out procedures for transferring documents according to legal regulations, leading to the situation where ships do not have original documents; ships do not meet the prescribed conditions and criteria (ship hull, ship engine, fishing profession, etc.). Recently, many ship owners contacted the Economic Department to register fishing vessels. However, after checking the list of reports and registrations sent to the Department by the People's Committees of communes and wards, there were no names of the above ship owners, so there was no basis to guide the registration of fishing vessels according to regulations. Some wards and communes did not report even though there were unregistered fishing vessel owners in the area.
The real stories of the two localities above show that there are still many difficulties and obstacles in eliminating fishing vessels that are subject to the "3 no's" (no registration, no fishing license, no inspection). Meanwhile, under the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development presides over and guides the People's Committees of localities and relevant units to organize the reception of dossiers for official registration of fishing vessels. The time for receiving registration dossiers is until December 31, 2024. After January 5, 2025, the fishing vessels on the list that have not been officially registered according to regulations will be compiled by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and included in the list of illegal fishing vessels sent to the competent agencies and local authorities for strict handling according to regulations.
If the difficulties and problems are not resolved, it will be very difficult to manage this fleet, leading to a very high risk of IUU fishing violations.
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