An overview of the meeting (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The National Steering Committee on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU)Fishing Prevention and Control on July 13 held an online meeting with representativesof 28 coastal localities to discuss measures to continue to combat IUU fishing.
Addressing the meeting, the fifth held by the committee since itwas set up in 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh, head of the committee, underlinedthe determination to step by step moving towards the removal of the “yellow card,” imposed by the European Commission on Vietnam, thus boosting thedevelopment of fisheries sector.
He noted that over the years, Vietnam has concentrated onbuilding a legal system on fisheries to meet the requirements of integration andsustainable development of the sector, which has resulted in improvement of fishermen’s compliance to the law.
Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh addresses the meeting(Photo: VNA) However, the Deputy PM pointed out that violations in fishingregulations, though showing decreases, still continue, the seafood origin tracing capacityhas remained modest, and infrastructure system of fishing wharfs in 28localities have received inadequate investment.
He stressed the need to settle the overlapping ofregulations and complete the legal corridor in the field.
Deputy PM Thanh called for more efforts from the mass media inpopularising relevant regulations and raising fishermen’s awareness in thefield.
Herequested the 28 coastal localities to work harder in IUU fishing prevention andcontrol and allocate more budget to the activities.
In late 2017, theEuropean Commission issued a "yellow card" warning to Vietnam, afterthe country failed to demonstrate sufficient progress in the fight against IUUfishing. The commission gave ninerecommendations for Vietnam to implement in order to remove the card, which was cut tofour after two times of examination in May 2018 and November 2019.
So far, Vietnam has made a number of positive changes in preventingIUU fishing, including installing vessel monitoring systems (VMS)in fishing vessels and building a database on fishing vesselsconnecting the central to local levels.
Fisshing vessels of Quang Ninh go offshore for fishing (Photo: VNA) As of June 30, 2021, VMS had been installed in 26,915fishing vessels with length from 15m, reaching 87.45 percent.
According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Phung Duc Tien, after nearly four years of implementing IUUprevention and fight measures, Vietnam’s efforts have been recognised by the EC.The commission has lauded Vietnam’s goodwill, cooperation, transparency andhonest in providing and exchanging information on the results of IUU fishingprevention and control measures.
Tien said that since 2020, due to COVID-19, the EC has not beenable to send inspectors to Vietnam, however, the ministry has regularlyreported the outcomes of the country’s implementation of the measures to thecommissions.
The ministry will strive to cut at least 40 percent in thenumber of fishing vessels committing violations of foreign waters in 2021 and completely end such violations in 2022.
Participants at the meeting gave a number of ideas tostrengthen IUU fishing prevention and control measures, including stricterpunishments and the setting up of fishing surveillance teams in localities./.
VNA
