Combat IUU Fishing

Offshore fishing vessels have been told to closely follow Vietnamese and international fishing regulations to help remove the European Commission's yellow card – a warning given to nations at risk of being deemed uncooperative in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Here is VASEP and Vietnam marine product enterprises’ activities to combat IUU fishing. The schedule is updated in June 2019.

This Decree deals with administrative violations, penalties, fines, remedial measures against each violation, the power to impose penalties, fines imposed by authorized title holders, and the power to record administrative violations against regulations on fisheries.

In the continued efforts to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishery (IUU) globally, Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, will launch the EU’s first IT tool, called “CATCH”, conceived to streamline the checks of seafood products entering the EU market.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved the Decision 596/QĐ-TTg on the establishment of the National Steering Committee on combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.

On October 23, 2017, the EC officially issued a “yellow-card” warning for Vietnam’s seafood exports to the EU market. The EC also proposed nine recommendations that Vietnam should immediately implement in six months (from October 23, 2017 to April 23, 2018). The “yellow card” is followed by a “green card” if the problem is resolved or a “red card” if it isn’t. A “red card” can lead to a trade ban on fishery products.

The tides wait for no one. Southeast Asia fishers live this truth daily and know that their catches are in decline, particularly for those leading hardscrabble lives casting their nets close to shore. The perils for these fishermen are well-documented and include clashes with other commercial trawlers, resource depletion, water pollution, and limitations in catch traceability, along with dangerous labor conditions.

The threat of a bad report card from the European Union has alarmed the more than 30,000 Vietnamese commercial traditional trawlers considered at risk of being deemed uncooperative in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. With EU officials expected to return to Vietnam next week for a reassessment of Vietnam’s violations, the fishing industry has been fast-tracking measures to correct its marine practices. In the process, Vietnam may become a model for ASEAN countries.

Vietnam is pushing to implement recommendations from the European Commission in advance of a new round of inspections that the country’s leaders hope will lead to the elimination of a warning label it received from the commission last year.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Below is the list of enterprises who are committed to purchasing raw materials sourced from legal fishing vessels with clear traceability and only importing legally caught seafood. These enterprises resolutely do not buy catches sourced from illegal fishing vessels operating without permit, logbook and report in accordance with regulations, or fishing with prohibited fishing gears. They say no to the protected species and catches with smaller size than the minimum size limits.

On November 15, 2018, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development promulgated a Circular No. 21/2018/TT-BNNPTNT on preparation and submission of fishing reports and fishing logbooks; publishing of list of fishing ports designated to issue statement of fishery products processed from catches, and IUU vessel list; validation of catch statements for raw materials and catch certificates.

Fisheries Committee MEPs visited Hanoi and Vietnamese coastal provinces last week, to look into Vietnam's efforts in fighting illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.

On October 18th 2018, the EU and the Republic of Korea have pledged to work closely together to fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing with a joint statement signed by European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, and Mr Kim Young-Choon, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries of the Republic of Korea. The signing took place on the eve of a bilateral EU-Republic of Korea Summit.

Vietnam has been active in implementing nine recommendations related to the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing of the European Commission (EC) to ensure responsible and sustainable fisheries, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Xuan Cuong.


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