6 Northern coastal provinces and cities coordinate to prevent IUU fishing

On May 12, at the inter-agency headquarters No. 3, Ha Long city (Quang Ninh province), the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of six provinces and cities including Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, and Thanh Hoa organized the signing of cooperation agreement to inspect and control fishing vessels, catches, as well as preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the period 2023 - 2025.

The signing ceremony's purpose is to strengthen coordination in the inspection and control of fishing vessels and catches, together preventing IUU fishing in the waters of six provinces and cities. The ultimate purpose is to prevent and handle violations, eventually putting an end to the situation of fishing vessels and fishermen violating the law against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.

Along with that, the six provinces and cities will need to strengthen propaganda and dissemination of the content of the Law on Fisheries, guiding documents on the implementation of the Law and regulations on anti-IUU fishing to the owners of fishing vessels and ships. Captains and fishermen must know and strictly abide by regulations, especially regulations on the control of fishing vessels at ports, certification of raw materials, and certification of the origin of exploited aquatic products.

Ship owners, captains and fishermen will also be guided to implement regulations and procedures concerning fishing vessels leaving and docking at ports to load and unload products, recording fishing logs, certifying raw materials, and certifying sources and origin of exploited aquatic products, in accordance with the provisions of Document No. 27 dated December 30, 2022 on consolidation of the circular regulations on submitting fishing reports and diaries; announcing the designated fishing port certifying the origin of fishery products and the list of illegal fishing vessels.

The local authorities will implement 100% control of fishing vessels of other provinces that dock and leave ports, requesting fishing vessel owners and captains to dock at designated fishing ports, ensuring conditions according to the provisions of the Law on Fisheries and regulations on anti-IUU fishing.

The fishing port management boards in the localities must not sign the seafarers' register book, as well as not confirm the departure from the port. This applies to fishing vessels that do not comply with regulations such as no fishing vessel registration, no fishing license, or operating in the wrong profession, the certificate of food hygiene and safety expired or not available; no cruise monitoring device or the monitoring device lost connection, no sealing of cruise monitoring device according to regulations.

During the control process, if the provinces and cities detect that fishing vessels are on the list of high risk of violating the provisions of the Law on Fisheries and regulations on anti-IUU fishing, the representative offices of the inspectors, fisheries control shall make minutes and send them to competent agencies to handle violations according to regulations.