Vietnam will investigate and handle all cases of the country’s fishing vessels being arrested by foreign countries, strictly punish all acts related to illegal fishing in the foreign waters and name them on the mass media, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.
Vietnam will investigate and handle all cases of the country’s fishing vessels being arrested by foreign countries, strictly punish all acts related to illegal fishing in the foreign waters and name them on the mass media, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.
In a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency, Tien admitted the fact that there remain a small number of Vietnamese-flagged fishing vessels still illegally fishing in foreign waters.
To put an end to this phenomenon, the heads of local Party committees and authorities at all levels should uphold the sense of responsibility in leading and directing the combat against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Localities should quickly calculate the number of fishing vessels, complete the issuance of licenses as well as the installation of monitoring equipment, and the update of vessel data into the National Fisheries Database (Vnfishbase) as regulated to meet the requirement of information search and boat management.
Meanwhile, fishing ports should make statistics of all docking places; monitor and supervise all catches to ensure traceability; strictly handle vessels that do not dock at designated ports, said Tien.
He also stressed the importance of stepping up communications to raise public awareness of respecting law, and request seafood enterprises to resolutely refuse to purchase, process and export products coming from IUU fishing.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien (Photo: VNA)
Regarding the fourth inspection of the European Commission (EC) to assess Vietnam’s efforts to fight IUU fishing, slated for April 2023, the deputy minister said that his ministry will coordinate with other ministries and sectors to launch patrols and inspections, and strictly sanction all acts of IUU fishing according to regulations.
At the same time, efforts will be made to investigate and prosecute any cases of brokering and luring fishermen to conduct illegal fishing in the foreign waters.
In October 2017, the EC issued a "yellow card" warning against Vietnamese seafood exports after Vietnamese fishermen violated IUU regulations.
Since then, it has sent delegations to Vietnam thrice to assess Vietnam’s implementation of the commission’s recommendations to have the card removed./.
Source: vna