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Ninh Thuan applies urgent measures to prevent IUU fishing

The south central province of Ninh Thuan is rolling out measures to prevent and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, considering it as one of its urgent tasks.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Huyen said that the province has focused on popularising the Fisheries Law and IUU prevention and control regulations, while working closely with other coastal localities in putting an end to IUU fishing, helping to persuade the European Commission (EC) to remove its “yellow card” warning against Vietnamese seafood.
 
Huyen said that from now until May, Ninh Thuan will carry out a communication campaign against IUU fishing through various methods to reach particular groups, thus raising public awareness of the work.

In April, the province will strive to complete the review and listing of all local fishing vessels, along with the registration and licencing of all the vessels as well as the issuance of food safety certificates and the installation of the vessel monitoring system (VMS) on all vessels.

Ninh Thuan is also applying measures to strengthen control and inspection over local vessels at local ports, while ensuring the traceability of local seafood, Huyen said.

According to the Ninh Thuan Sub-Department of Fisheries, to date, the province has organised nearly 110 training courses for more than 6,000 local officials and fishermen to provide them with knowledge on legal regulations regarding fishing activities, and encouraged them to sign commitments to not violating foreign waters during their operations.

The sub-department reported that to date, 100% of the offshore fishing vessels have received operational licences, while 99.5% of all the local fishing vessels have got food safety certificates. At the same time, 99.7% of the local fleet have installed VMS, including all ships with a length from 24m.

The province has also finished the updating of fishing vessel data on the VNFishbase, it added./.

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