Quang Ninh continues to implement urgent solutions to remove the IUU "yellow card"

Quang Ninh has a large territorial sea of over 6,000 square kilometers, over 250 kilometers of coastline, over 2,000 large and small islands and is one of the four key fishing grounds in the country. Implementing the direction of the Central and the province, currently, functional sectors and localities are making efforts to deploy many solutions, joining hands with coastal provinces and cities across the country to achieve the goal of removing the "yellow card" on fisheries. In which, focusing on activities to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Localities, law enforcement forces and the Quang Ninh Provincial Border Guard have been and are continuing to strengthen patrols, inspections and strict handling of violations in the protection and development of aquatic resources in the province.

Officers and soldiers of Squadron 2, Quang Ninh Provincial Border Guard, propagate
for fishermen on IUU.

The Provincial Border Guard Command has directed coastal units to resolutely take action, maximizing the role of the people's eyes and ears in the fight against destructive fishing. Since the beginning of the year, the Quang Ninh Border Guard has detected, arrested and handled 92 cases with 93 subjects and 93 vehicles violating regulations on illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing, imposed a fine of nearly 1.4 billion VND, and seized many exhibits such as rakes, planks, electric shock tools, homemade suction and blowing machines.

Lieutenant Colonel Pham Hong Tuyen, Political Commissar of Squadron 2, Provincial Border Guard, said: Although the majority of fishermen comply with the law on fishing; however, there are still some cases of lack of legal knowledge, so they still violate the State's regulations. In the face of the above situation, the Commander of the Border Guard Squadron 2 has promoted the sense of responsibility, coordinated with the coastal border stations to proactively develop plans, organize forces and means to patrol and control regularly; concentrate forces in key areas, hot spots where illegal fishing activities may occur, and protect the peace of the sea.

The close cooperation between officers and soldiers of the Quang Ninh Border Guard and fishermen at sea has contributed significantly to strengthening and connecting the military-civilian relationship, so that each fisherman becomes the eyes and ears, the extended arm of the authorities in the fight against illegal fishing.

On the local government side, the Provincial People's Committee directed functional agencies, departments, branches and localities to step up information and propaganda work in various appropriate forms on regulations, policies and laws on exploitation management, protection of aquatic resources, sustainable marine aquaculture development, associated with the implementation of a number of urgent tasks and solutions on combating IUU fishing; strengthening the work of registration, inspection, granting of fishing licenses, food safety certificates for fishing vessels; inspection and examination at sea... In October 2024, functional forces and People's Committees of localities in the province organized 29 sessions to directly disseminate fisheries laws to 3,682 fishermen; distributed 2,947 leaflets and documents on regulations on combating IUU fishing, zoning maps, routes, fishing logs, etc.

The province's coastal sectors and localities have strengthened the handling of administrative violations; inspected and checked fishing ports; reviewed records of fishing vessels entering and leaving ports, monitored the output of exploited aquatic products loaded and unloaded through ports; strengthened the work of preserving and developing aquatic resources to promptly rectify and ensure compliance with legal regulations. In October 2024, 13 reports of violations in the exploitation and protection of aquatic resources were received, through which the functional forces verified that 5/13 reports were violations, 8 reports had no violations. Since the beginning of the year, the whole province has detected and handled 392 cases of IUU violations, with fines of over 4.1 billion VND.

The deployment of the fishing vessel monitoring system (VMS) and the control of fishing vessels violating the regulations on fishing in foreign waters are also regularly focused on. Currently, the province has 257/257 fishing vessels of 15m or more installed with VMS, reaching 100%. During offshore exploitation, the functional forces of the province closely monitor fishing vessels. Every week, a list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU and losing connection offshore is made and sent to the Provincial Border Guard Command, Provincial Police, local People's Committees in the province and coastal provinces/cities for monitoring, coordination, inspection, verification and handling according to regulations.

With the participation of the entire political system, Quang Ninh is making efforts to implement many solutions, resolutely combating illegal fishing, together with the whole country to quickly remove the "yellow card" warned by the European Commission to the Vietnamese seafood industry, which will help our country's seafood products easily access and penetrate demanding markets around the world. In the long term, this is also a solution to protect the marine environment, protect the long-term livelihoods of fishermen, and create opportunities for the development of sustainable aquaculture and seafood exploitation in Vietnam.

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