Control of IUU fishing to remove barrier to fishery exports

A delegation of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has worked with the Sub-Department of Fisheries of Binh Dinh, Binh Dinh Fishing Port Management Board, Binh Dinh Fishery Joint Stock Company and a number of seafood processors, producers and exporters in the province on the commitment to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

At the "Control of IUU fishing and connecting fishermen with purchasing facilities, seafood enterprises and localities" Dialogue, VASEP said it understood the difficulties the fishery industry has been facing in fighting IUU fishing.

Then, VASEP planned to help localities, at the same time asking enterprises in the seafood linkage chain and state management agencies to take effective measures to soon get IUU "yellow card" removed and regain the reputation and position of Vietnamese seafood when exporting to the EU market.

According to the Sub-Department of Fisheries of Binh Dinh, despite a lot of effort in combating IUU fishing many problems still persisted. In particular, many captains still made mistakes with updating records on fishing trips as information of locations, catching time in their records did not fit with the data from fishing vessel tracking system.

In addition, information about fish names and fishing time shown on catch certificates did not match the records.

The Binh Dinh Sub-Department of Fisheries has not had specialized software for monitoring and controlling fishing weight, and at the same time serving as a tool for certificating the origin of catch. Currently, the sub-department is still using Excel for catch management.

The issue of illegal fishing in foreign waters has not been definitively solved even though Binh Dinh province has taken drastic measures. In the first five months of 2022, five fishing vessels of the province including 2 of Cat Minh commune and 3 of Cat Tien commune (Phu Cat district) were seized for illegally fishing in Malaysian waters.

Vice Chairman of VASEP, Nguyen Thi Thu Sac said if there was any case of illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing reported, Vietnam could not remove the EC’s"yellow card" but also might be imposed "red card" penalty.

A possible "red card" also means that it’s impossible for Vietnamese seafood to reach international markets and fishermen and seafood processers will be the first ones suffering a big loss from the ban. Fishermen and their families will get into trouble because their livelihoods are affected. Meanwhile, seafood enterprises will face shortages of fishery materials for processing and their operations will come into standstill.

"To avoid something bad happening to fishermen and seafood businesses, local authorities need to make sure that fishermen clearly understand that they should stop IUU violations. It’s also a way to protect their livelihoods and their families," said Nguyen Thi Thu Sac.

According to Tran Van Phuc, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Dinh province, in the time to come the province's competent authorities would continue to disseminate information about combating IUU fishing to fishermen and vessel owners, especially those that are likely to illegally fish in foreign waters.

Furthermore, the provincial authorities are planning for a cooperation mechanism between the People's Committee of Binh Dinh and other southern provinces to strengthen the management of local fishing boats that regularly operate outside the province's waters and promptly handle any fishing vessel that is presumed to be engaged in IUU fishing.

"We are planning for a cooperation mechanism between the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant agencies and local authorities to deal with IUU fishing. We also focus on creating a list of fishing vessels violating IUU, assessing the situation, especially for those that are likely to illegally fish in foreign waters,” said Tran Van Phuc.