Communications work on illegal, undeclared, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the central coastal province in the last few years has proved effective in improving public awareness, particularly among fishermen, about the issue, according to Dao Quang Minh, head of the department, who said that provincial authorities have been strictly handling violations of IUU fishing. 

Local fishing vessels are reported to commit such acts as late registration, failure to maintain signals when operating at sea, or removal of vessel monitoring devices. The department have punished 12 violating fishing vessels for such violations, collecting a total fine of 194.5 million VND (8,200USD).

The province now has 119 fishing groups with 926 vessels and nearly 8,000 crew members.

Up to now, 97% of the province’s fishing vessels have been installed with vessel monitoring devices following regulations. The remaining ships have not yet installed the device mainly because they are no longer in operation and currently waiting for deregistration procedures.

In the coming time, the province will deregister nearly 2,200 fishing vessels that are no longer operational.

Phan Thuan, chairman of Ward 6 Fishing Association in Tuy Hoa Distric,t said that the association has about 120 fishing vessels and more than 700 fishermen. Since 2018, all of its members are usually told about Party, State, and Government’s policies on marine resource exploitation and relevant laws.

They are asked to follow the laws and regulations, he said./.