From 2018 to date, the province has organised 69 communications campaigns to raise awareness among ship owners on the Law on Fisheries 2017 and anti-IUU fishing. As a result, owners and captains of all the 768 off-shore vessels in Khanh Hoa have signed commitments, saying no to illegal fishing on foreign waters. In the first seven months of this year, there were no reports on local fishermen entering foreign waters.
Local authorities also set up four representative offices for inspection of fishing activities in Hon Ro, Da Bac, Vinh Luong, and Dai Lanh ports.
Since their establishment in April 2018, the offices have so far checked 9,500 arrivals and departures. They have also issued certificates of origin verification for 878 export batches.
Meanwhile, tracking devices have been installed on a total of 58 fishing vessels, including 24 ships measuring 24 metres and above in length.
However, the latest examination of the local anti-IUU work by a delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on August 9 still found shortcomings. They included incorrect statistics on ship arrivals/departures, incomplete origin verification process, and messy data collection by port management boards.
In response to the assessment outcomes, Dao Cong Thien, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, assigned the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant agencies to make improvements and apply technologies for data archive.
On October 23, 2017, the EC issued a "yellow card" warning to Vietnam, after the country failed to demonstrate sufficient progress in the fight against IUU fishing.
Countries that fail to meet EC standards are given a "yellow card", followed by a "green card" if the problems are resolved, or a "red card" if they are not. A red card can lead to a trade ban on fishery products.
An EC working delegation will visit Vietnam in early November to inspect the country’s implementation of the recommendations, with Khanh Hoa predicted to be among its destinations.
VNA/VNP
