It is expected that in June 2024, the European Commission (EC) will visit Vietnam for the fifth on-site inspection on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, to consider removing the “Yellow Card” warning for Vietnamese seafood. Thanh Hoa is expected to be one of the key localities in this inspection.
To overcome the limitations after the 4th inspection by the EC, on March 8, 2024, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 04/CD-2024 on implementing urgent solutions to combat IUU fishing in the province.
The province's interdisciplinary inspection team both patrolled, controlled and disseminated to fishermen regulations on IUU fishing.
2017 was a haunting year for Vietnam’s seafood industry when the EC issued a warning against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Over the past 6 years, ministries, central and local agencies, including Thanh Hoa, have made many efforts to overcome this. However, the fear of changing the warning color to red is still “hanging” as the recommendations have not been thoroughly resolved.
Video: The province's interdisciplinary inspection team patrols, controls and disseminates to fishermen regulations on IUU fishing.
The IUU fishing program was issued by the EC in 2008 and came into effect in 2010, aiming to prevent, deter and eliminate all illegal fishing activities. Normally, countries that fish illegally in IUU will be given a “yellow card” warning within 6 months. In case these countries do not take appropriate remedial measures, they risk receiving a “red card”, which means a long-term ban on exporting seafood to the EU market.
On October 23, 2017, the EC decided to withdraw the “yellow card” for Vietnamese seafood due to violations of the principles in the Program to combat IUU fishing. However, the EC working group has visited Vietnam four times to inspect the implementation of the fight against illegal fishing, warning that the “yellow card” for Vietnam has not been removed because there are still many shortcomings.
Boats anchored at Lach Bang fishing port (Nghi Son town).
Lach Bang fishing port, Hai Binh ward (Nghi Son town) in the early morning, many seafood purchasing and catching boats are waiting to dock after a long trip at sea. The favorable weather in the first days of the year has resulted in a large seafood catch, the joy of the "full" fish boats has made the atmosphere at the port even more bustling.
Through a quick conversation with fishermen here, we learned that thousands of local workers spontaneously pursue the sea, exploiting freely based on experience, so there is always a risk of natural disasters, unstable exploitation output; often exploiting in the wrong areas, leading to the risk of destroying marine resources. Along with that, after days at sea, fishing vessels often dock traditionally, spontaneously anywhere, although consuming products is quite easy, access to logistics services is limited, high costs. Not to mention that at spontaneous ports, there are not many businesses and traders with the capacity to purchase large quantities, so economic efficiency is not high.
From early morning, many fishing boats of fishermen docked at Lach Bang Fishing Port to sell products.
Having been attached to the sea for decades, every time he mentioned his father's traditional profession, Mr. Le Hoang Phuong, ship owner and captain of ship TH-91591-TS, Nghi Son town, his eyes darkened. He said: “People in Hai Binh ward in particular and many coastal communes and wards of Nghi Son town in general mainly live on the sea and rely on the sea. Many years ago, fishing boats exploited freely, leading to a sharp decrease in fishing output, many small-capacity fishing boats had to return empty-handed, not enough to cover labor and material costs. Many ship owners did not want or could not go offshore, but many people ignored the danger and risked going further to find seafood sources in the hope of improving output. Going to further seas always has potential dangers, especially for small-capacity boats.”
Bustling scene of seafood trading at Lach Hoi fishing port.
Chairman of Hai Binh Ward People's Committee Tran Van Son said: "In recent years, large fish flows have not appeared regularly, the products caught by fishermen are mainly trash fish, small fish... leading to the annual seafood output not being as expected. The main reason for this situation is the fishermen's habits and awareness of exploitation leading to the depletion of resources. Therefore, besides the decommissioned ships, there are also dozens of local ships that have registered to convert, increase capacity to go offshore, and expand the exploitation area".
The situation of fishing based on experience, habits, and not following regulations by fishermen in the sea areas not only leads to the risk of depleting aquatic resources, but is also one of the causes of violations of regulations in the Law on Fisheries and combating IUU fishing. For example, the ship with registration number TH-91744-TS of Mr. Do Van Tiep, Quang Tien ward (Sam Son city) was once reminded by the staff of the Representative Office of Thanh Hoa Fishing Port Management Board at Lach Hoi Port for not keeping a fishing log according to regulations. According to the explanation of the ship owner and crew, due to limited awareness, they thought that the fishing process had been recorded on the journey monitoring device. Moreover, during the days at sea, the whole crew only focused on fishing and searching for seafood sources without realizing the "necessity" of keeping a fishing log.
Many small boats and ships often exploit based on experience and tradition, unintentionally violating IUU fishing regulations.
Or the situation of some ships leaving port to exploit without having completed all procedures and reporting to the on-duty team at the fishing port according to regulations; the situation of ships and boats spontaneously docking at traditional fishing ports near residential areas to exchange and sell products... are acts of fishermen, whether intentional or unintentional, that are leading to alarming violations in the province's task of combating IUU fishing.
According to the assessment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently in many provinces, there are still cases of fishermen deliberately exploiting in foreign waters, exploiting with electric shock, explosives, lacking safety equipment... violating IUU, which needs to be eliminated immediately. In fact, the EU market is like a credit to prove the value and reputation of Vietnamese agricultural and aquatic products, and is also the basis for some other markets to apply control measures on Vietnamese aquatic products exports.
Lach Hoi fishing port, Sam Son city.
Therefore, the upcoming 5th inspection by the EC is an opportunity for Vietnam to remove the IUU "yellow card", contributing to improving the value and competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood. If violations continue in many forms, Vietnamese seafood products will be given a "red card", and will be completely banned from exporting to Europe. This will cause economic damage to the seafood industry and export activities, making it impossible to increase the value of seafood, affecting the jobs and income of tens of millions of coastal people nationwide. In particular, being "banned" from exporting to this large and potential market will also have a long-term impact on the export of goods, affecting the reputation and honor of the country in the international arena.
Therefore, from now until June 2024 is the golden time for Thanh Hoa province to make efforts to overcome shortcomings and limitations, and join hands with the whole country to remove the IUU "yellow card".
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