On the afternoon of May 7, the Provincial People's Committee held a meeting to evaluate the work of combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing). Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting.
Comrade Nguyen Van De - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee co-chaired. Attending were leaders of departments, branches, sectors, units and localities: Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Hoang Mai town and Cua Lo town.
IMPORTANT, URGENT TASKS
Implementing the direction of the task of combating IUU fishing of the Standing Secretariat, the Prime Minister, and the Head of the National Steering Committee on IUU, the People's Committee of Nghe An province advised the Provincial People's Council to issue 2 Resolutions to specifically support the fisheries sector; issued many documents directing sectors and localities to carry out the task of combating IUU fishing.
In particular, the Provincial People's Committee requested sectors and localities to focus on general inspection, review and grasp the number of fishing vessels, strictly manage the group of "3 no" fishing vessels: no registration, no inspection, no license; thoroughly handle the group of fishing vessels that lose connection to the monitoring device at sea, fishing vessels that violate foreign waters...
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province currently has 3,462 fishing vessels, of which 2,565 are required to be registered. As of April 30, 2024, the rate of fishing vessel registration reached 90.37%; fishing licenses reached 95.38%, food safety certificates were issued 86.18%; inspection reached 78.3%; and installation of journey monitoring devices reached 96.95%.
The province has 4 fishing ports, of which 3 are qualified to certify the origin of aquatic products. The inspection and supervision of fishing vessels and aquatic product output through the ports have been carried out by the Fishing Port Management Board and the Interdisciplinary Teams in accordance with the procedures and are becoming more and more serious.
Nghe An has 116 ships/426 times losing connection for more than 6 hours at sea to 10 days without reporting their location to shore as prescribed. The number of fishing vessels losing connection for more than 10 days at sea in 2023 is 297 ships, nearly 4 months of the first year of 2024 is 81 ships. The number of fishing vessels losing connection for more than 6 months up to April 10, 2024 while operating at sea is 116 ships.
In 2023, the authorities handled 161 administrative violations with a total fine of 714.5 million VND. In the first 4 months of 2024, 31 subjects/31 vehicles were handled for administrative violations with a total fine of 490.3 million VND, and 12 people were stripped of their captain's certificates.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that there are still fishing vessels that do not meet the conditions for fishing activities but there is no plan for close monitoring and supervision; fishing vessels operate in offshore areas but do not dock at designated fishing ports but often dock spontaneously.
The progress of handling violations by agencies and authorities at all levels is still slow. The inspection and supervision of fishing vessels and the output of fishing through ports are still not thorough. The reporting, updating of data, archiving and provision of records by agencies are not timely and complete, especially data on fishing vessel inspection and data on administrative violation penalties.
Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van De requested that sectors and localities strengthen management of the number of fishing boats, support people in handling procedures, and strictly handle cases of electric shock...
At the meeting, leaders of localities, sectors and units reported on the results of the implementation of tasks to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; at the same time, raised many recommendations and proposals in providing voyage monitoring equipment; investing in expanding and upgrading fishing ports; supporting and guiding "3 no" fishing vessels in registration and inspection...
EFFECTIVELY PERFORMING THE TASKS OF COMBATTING IUU FISHING
Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung emphasized that the fight against IUU fishing is an extremely important and urgent task. In recent times, the Central Party Secretariat, the Government, and the Prime Minister have issued many directives with the determination to remove the yellow card that the European Commission has warned about in 2024.
After more than 6 years of implementing the warnings of the European Commission, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that the province's anti-IUU fishing work has made efforts and achieved some positive results, focusing on 3 groups of issues.
Firstly, leadership and direction have been implemented resolutely with the Provincial People's Committee advising the Provincial People's Council to issue 2 Resolutions; issue many directives, plans, decisions, official dispatches, and conclusion notices; and establish an Inspection Team for anti-IUU fishing activities.
Second, attention is paid to propaganda, mobilization and persuasion of fishermen to carry out tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing.
Third, initial results of fishing vessel management have been implemented more effectively, from fleet management, monitoring and surveillance at sea, to inspection of fishing vessels entering and leaving fishing ports and ports. Law enforcement has been more serious, especially in recent times; fishermen's awareness of law compliance has gradually improved.
In addition to the achieved results, the head of the Provincial People's Committee said that there are still many shortcomings, limitations and difficulties in combating IUU fishing. The progress of inspection, verification and handling of fishing vessels that violate regulations and lose connection to the journey monitoring device is still slow and does not meet the requirements; the situation of fishing vessels not maintaining the journey monitoring device 24/24 when fishing at sea is still common.
The number of "3 no" fishing boats, which have not been inspected for food safety and have not installed voyage monitoring equipment, is still high. The management and statistics of "3 no" fishing boats in the districts are not complete. The inspection, supervision, statistics of output through the port, and recording of fishing logs are not complete. The situation of illegal use of fishing gear still exists.
Pointing out the reasons, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung said that some localities have not taken drastic measures, the responsibility and role of leaders are not high. The work of mobilizing and propagating people at the grassroots level has not received due attention. The work of checking and verifying fishing vessels that have lost connection to the journey monitoring device takes a lot of time. The awareness of some fishermen in complying with regulations on combating IUU fishing is not high.
To effectively implement the fight against IUU fishing in the coming time and prepare to work with the 5th European Commission Inspection Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung requested the members of the Steering Committee, leaders of relevant departments, branches and localities to be more determined and focus more on seriously and effectively implementing Directive 32 of the Central Party Secretariat and Resolution No. 52 of the Government and directive documents of the Government, Prime Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
During the implementation process, promote the role and responsibility of leaders; at the same time, strictly handle organizations and individuals who do not perform assigned tasks, promptly reward and encourage organizations and individuals with good, creative and effective ways of doing things.
The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development as the standing agency to advise on the completion of the Provincial Steering Committee on combating IUU fishing before May 15, in which the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee is the Head of the Committee; the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee is the Deputy Head of the Committee; the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is the Deputy Head of the Committee; heads of branches and Chairmen of District People's Committees are members.
In addition, deploy the tasks in Official Dispatch No. 2980 dated April 24, 2024 of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, report before May 20, 2024.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the Provincial People's Committee Office to advise on the issuance of the Plan of the Provincial Party Standing Committee to implement Directive No. 32 of the Central Party Secretariat; the Plan of the Provincial People's Committee to implement Resolution No. 52 of the Government; and the Plan to welcome and work with the 5th EC Inspection Delegation.
Preside over and coordinate with the Border Guard Command and localities to urgently review all fishing vessel data, including deregistered fishing vessels; ensure that the data is accurate, consistent, and consistent with data on the national VNFishbase system. Fishing vessel data ensures full information on the status of the vessel, the cause...
Make a list of ships that have not been granted fishing licenses, ships with expired inspections, ships that have not installed voyage monitoring equipment; provide the list to the District/Town People's Committee, Border Guard Stations and Coastal Control Stations to guide ship owners to carry out procedures according to regulations and promptly handle violations.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development directs the Fisheries Sub-Department to organize 24/7 duty to exploit and effectively use the Fishing Vessel Monitoring System to strictly manage fishing vessel activities at sea. Provide a list of fishing vessels that have lost connection to the journey monitoring device to the Provincial Border Guard Command and the District People's Committees to investigate, verify and thoroughly handle violations according to regulations.
In addition, direct the Fishing Port Management Board and the Interdisciplinary Team to strictly and correctly implement regulations on inspection and control of fishing vessels entering and leaving the port, monitor 100% of output in the field; inspect and control 100% of fishing vessels with a length of 24 meters or more entering the port. Deploy and guide fishermen and businesses to electronically trace exploited aquatic products; fully update data to national databases and administrative violation penalty databases on the system of the Department of Fisheries.
Regarding the Provincial Border Guard Command, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung assigned to preside over, speed up the investigation, verification, and consolidation of records to strictly handle according to regulations for fishing vessels that have lost connection to their journey monitoring devices from January 25, 2024 to present.
On the other hand, direct border stations and posts to strengthen inspection and control of fishing vessels entering and leaving the estuary, ensuring that 100% of fishing vessels are marked and registered according to regulations. For fishing vessels that do not meet the operating conditions, they will not be allowed to leave the estuary for exploitation and the owners will be required to leave fishing gear and equipment on board.
Fully update the results of administrative sanctions in the field of combating IUU fishing into the Administrative Violations Handling Software System according to regulations; Direct the Coastal Border Guard Stations to closely coordinate with the Fishing Port Management Board to propagate to fishing vessel owners to use the software to carry out exit and entry procedures for fishing vessels.
For coastal localities, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung requested to thoroughly disseminate and propagate the contents and requirements of Directive No. 32 of the Central Party Secretariat to cadres, party members, and people of all walks of life, especially fishermen; the forms of propaganda must be diverse, visual, and vivid. Localities must take drastic action and mobilize ship owners to strictly comply with regulations.
Preside over updating the list of "3 no" fishing vessels with a maximum length of 6m or more; organize work with ship owners who are not qualified to participate in fishing to guide them in completing procedures according to regulations; grasp the anchorage locations of these fishing vessels. After May 20, 2024, the Chairman of the People's Committee of any locality where "3 no" fishing vessels arise must be responsible to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.
Coastal districts focus resources, establish working groups to review, inspect, verify, and impose sanctions on fishing vessels that lose connection to monitoring their journeys for more than 10 days at sea and do not bring the vessel to shore; provide documents to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to update the software system and compile reports. Step by step, research solutions to create livelihoods to support fishermen, protect the legitimate and legal rights of fishermen.
In addition, direct the People's Committees of communes and wards to assign officials to grasp the area and number of local fishing vessels; grasp and update the daily status of fishing vessels that are not qualified to participate in fishing activities, keep images of fishing vessels for management purposes; count the output of aquatic products unloaded through private fishing ports, ensuring to increase the rate of monitored aquatic product output.
The head of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance to coordinate with the Border Guard force to increase patrol and control activities at sea and inlets, especially establish interdisciplinary teams to strictly handle IUU fishing activities in Nghe An waters.
For media agencies, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee suggested focusing on organizing a peak propaganda campaign on combating IUU fishing, especially Directive No. 32 of the Secretariat; Resolution No. 52 of the Government; prioritizing broadcasting capacity and time suitable for the majority of fishermen.
To prepare for the working session with the European Commission's inspection delegation scheduled for the end of May, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung requested departments, branches, units and localities to focus resources, arrange locations, assign staff with good professional expertise, report and respond to the delegation's requests; arrange, update unified data, and store records to serve the inspection delegation.
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