Although Vietnam has not yet removed the “yellow card”, Binh Thuan is one of the provinces that is assessed to have many positive changes after 1 year of implementing many measures in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Binh Thuan identifies this as a top political task, and above all, is implementing fisheries management in the direction of development and sustainability.
Not just to remove the "yellow card"
The last days of the year, also the time when the north wind blows, in the cold weather of December, looking at the long rows of boats lying straight along the Ca Ty River, signaling that the weather is unfavorable, so many fishermen are afraid to go to sea. But here and there, a few ships have docked after more than half a month at sea, carrying hundreds of baskets of fresh fish from the open sea. Fisherman Nguyen Huu Thanh (Duc Thang ward) and his fellow fishermen are busy carrying baskets of fish ashore. When I asked, he happily said: "Although the catch is not as much as every year, but anyway, this last trip of the year is safe, the price of seafood has increased, so the fishermen can share a few million VND, enough to buy Tet for their families".
When I mentioned the situation of the sea in recent years, Mr. Thanh pondered: “After participating in many propaganda campaigns on IUU, I knew I had to change. Therefore, I am one of the fishermen who took the lead in implementing the State's policy, from installing journey monitoring devices to notifying 1 hour in advance when entering/exiting ports, keeping logbooks, signing commitments with the authorities not to illegally fish in foreign waters. Then, I mobilized the fishermen in the group to unite and implement it. Initially, when the authorities tightened the measures, many fishermen were very upset, but when they understood that this was a way to limit illegal fishing and protect fishing grounds, I and other fishermen were very supportive.”
Like Mr. Thanh, other fishermen in the province also went through the same process from not understanding to understanding and taking action. Therefore, up to now, the fishing community has more or less understood what IUU is. Moreover, some people can list out in detail the tasks to be done to combat IUU fishing, even though 2 years ago they were very vague. This is the result of great efforts from departments, branches, members of the Provincial Steering Committee against IUU fishing, the joint efforts of the government and fishermen to gradually change their thinking and working methods from traditional fishing to more responsible fishing.
Mr. Huynh Quang Huy - Head of the provincial Fisheries Department said: “Determining that combating IUU fishing is not only contributing to removing the EC's "yellow card", but more importantly, building a sustainable fisheries sector. Therefore, in 2023, the province has made efforts to deploy synchronous solutions, gradually overcoming many situations arising during the implementation process. Closely monitoring groups of fishing vessels at high risk of violating foreign waters, preventing illegal fishing vessels and fishermen from continuing to occur. In particular, Binh Thuan is one of the few coastal provinces and cities that have completed 100% of the installation of fishing vessel monitoring equipment (VMS) for operating fishing vessels (1,944 vessels), while strictly controlling inactive fishing vessels that have not yet installed VMS...”.
Create a safe “boundary”
Not only is it resolutely prohibiting the crossing of Vietnam's maritime borders, the province also has a story of creating highly effective "sea boundaries", specifically in 2023 in 3 coastal communes of Ham Thuan Nam through the model of co-management of sea areas. In the recent southern fishing season, fishermen in all fishing villages of the 3 communes of Tan Thuan, Tan Thanh and Thuan Quy could not hide their joy when shrimp and fish came to live in such large numbers that everyone thought they had "won the lottery". On average, each basket earns about 3 - 5 million VND/day, some baskets earn 9 - 10 million VND, an income 10 times higher than before. In addition to squid and common fish, many species that have been "missing" for nearly ten years have just reappeared, such as silver fish, mussels, brown dom, especially lobsters and silver shrimp with high economic value have reappeared... This is a great effort of the Provincial Fisheries Association when in 2015, it built a "Pilot model of co-management of razor clams in Thuan Quy commune". This is the first model in the country, then replicated in the remaining two coastal communes.
In particular, in Tan Thuan commune, the model of "IUU Community Monitoring Team" has been built and operated. Mr. Le Xuan Quynh - Head of the IUU Monitoring Team could not hide his joy: "It must be recognized that since the model was put into implementation, the fishing village here has strongly revived, many fishermen who left the sea have returned to their profession, everyone is excited after fishing trips full of fish and shrimp. The clearest proof is that from the initial 50 members, now there are about 180/250 members fishing in the area who have voluntarily joined the association, contributing their own funds to build artificial reefs."
This success has clearly changed the thinking and awareness of the people. They have marked the sea area for co-management, creating a safe "boundary", preventing the activities of prohibited occupations, creating habitats and breeding grounds for aquatic resources. Thanks to that, IUU violations have been significantly reduced, and conflicts in exploitation in the sea area applying co-management have been limited, especially violations of fly trawling, trawling, illegal diving, and the use of prohibited occupations/fishing gear...
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, to effectively combat IUU fishing, Binh Thuan has a plan to encourage fishermen to participate in good models in protecting aquatic resources. At the same time, gradually reduce the number of coastal fishing vessels, change jobs for fishermen, open up new livelihoods for fishermen such as developing marine aquaculture, implementing models to protect and regenerate aquatic resources associated with developing ecotourism... Only then will the lives of fishermen be stable and the fishing industry will develop in a new, safer and more sustainable direction.
Binh Thuan is one of the three largest fishing grounds in the country with a total of 7,824 fishing vessels. The province has registered 5,940 fishing vessels with a length of 6 m or more and updated them in the national register, reaching 75.9%. Binh Thuan is one of the first provinces to implement the review of "3 no" vessels (not registered, inspected, and not having a fishing license) with a high rate. To date, the whole province still has 1,882 "3 no" vessels, of which over 90% are vessels with a length of 6 - 12 m.
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