Combating IUU fishing: Resolutely handling '3 no' fishing vessels

Photo caption

Boats anchored in Ninh Co fishing port, Ninh Binh province.

Promote electronic diary declaration

For over a year, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, captain of fishing boat ND-92345-TS, has become familiar with the import and export declaration process on the kiosk (touch screen computer) located at the office of the Fishing Port Management Board, Hai Thinh commune. This kiosk was arranged by the Management Board to serve boat owners in declaring import and export on the Electronic Logbook and Traceability (eCDT) software, helping boat owners quickly complete procedures in a transparent and accurate manner.

Mr. Tuan said that in the past, every time he did procedures at the port, especially during the fishing season, the number of registered ships was large, many ship owners had to wait to declare, which took a long time. With this software, ship owners are guided by port officials to declare with simple and quick operations, shortening the time to do procedures.

Electronic logbook and traceability (eCDT) is a shared software, installed and used by smart devices such as phones, tablets, etc., providing full procedures and declaration functions according to regulations for units of the Department of Fisheries - Fisheries Control, Fishing Port Management Board, Border Guard Station, export processing companies, warehouses and fishermen.

The functions are designed to be simple and easy to understand, with implementation steps such as: Managing fishing vessels leaving the port and recording initial data on vessels and crew; recording catch output at the time of fishing through electronic logbook devices; managing vessels entering the port, updating catch output; monitoring output at the port, issuing unloading receipts, purchasing fish at the port; issuing confirmations and certificates of origin of raw materials for processing factories.

If in the past, information about the quantity of seafood caught during the trip was manually recorded by ship owners in books and papers that were easily blurred, faded or damaged during the exploitation process at sea, now, this software supports ship owners in recording fishing logs and logs of transporting exploited products in an environment without Internet, all information will be automatically synchronized when the ship arrives at port and connects to the Internet.

In Ninh Binh province, there are currently 2 designated fishing ports that have been announced to be open and put into use, namely Ninh Co fishing port and Thanh Vui fishing port. The province has 3 provincial-level storm shelter anchorage areas, namely Ninh Co fishing port combined with storm shelter anchorage area, Quan Vinh and Ha Lan estuary storm shelter anchorage area. These locations are staffed with officers in charge of guiding and supporting ship owners, captains; purchasing and processing enterprises to log in to eCDT accounts.

As of September 22, the eCDT system of the Fishing Port Management Board under the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ninh Binh province recorded over 6,000 import and export vessels; the output of aquatic products through the port was over 8,800 tons.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Chung, Director of the Fishing Port Management Board under the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ninh Binh province, said that the application of this software helps confirm and certify the origin of domestically exploited aquatic products as well as monitor and resolve administrative procedures more easily. This will raise the awareness and responsibility of fishermen in implementing legal regulations on combating illegal IUU fishing.

However, due to the nature of seafaring, the information technology level of the people is still limited, fishermen are not proficient in logging in and using electronic declaration software, making this work still encounter many difficulties. Currently, at the locations receiving import and export declarations, officers of the Fishing Port Management Board not only help ship owners register for import and export, but also guide them in installing and declaring using the software. The units also arrange declaration kiosks and tablets to support fishermen in completing import and export procedures on the software.

Handling of "3 no" fishing vessels

Ninh Binh province currently has 1,861 fishing vessels; of which, vessels with a length of 15m or more are 593 (accounting for 31.9%). Implementing the peak period of combating IUU fishing, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ninh Binh province regularly reviews and updates the province's fishing vessel data on the national fisheries database VNFishbase.

The province has compiled a list of 370 fishing vessels that have been deregistered, 202 fishing vessels that have been bought and sold, and transferred ownership within and outside the province, ensuring that these fishing vessels are no longer able to operate. For vessels sold to other provinces, all regulations on buying, selling, and registering fishing vessels must be fully implemented, ensuring that the deregistration complies with the provisions of Article 72 of the 2017 Fisheries Law.

The Department of Agriculture and Environment, Border Guard, Provincial Police, commune police, and commune-level authorities in Ninh Binh have focused on reviewing all records of handling violations of regulations on losing connection to the vehicle monitoring system (VMS) at sea without reporting location to shore, losing connection to the VMS for more than 10 days without returning to shore, exceeding the permitted boundary for exploitation at sea, and violating illegal seafood exploitation in foreign waters.

According to statistics up to September 14, the whole province has 29 fishing vessels that are not qualified for fishing activities. The Department of Fisheries - Fisheries Control has made a list, the anchorage of each vessel and signed a handover record with the names of the officers of each commune in coordination with the fisheries station, border guard station, and commune police for management, with satellite images of the location of each fishing vessel.

From January 1, 2024 to September 14, 2025, no fishing vessels of Ninh Binh province violated the law on illegal fishing in foreign waters; there have been no cases of violations brought to trial, prosecution, or trial for acts related to sending fishing vessels and fishermen to illegally fish in foreign waters, sending and transporting VMS equipment according to Resolution No. 04/2024/NQ-HDTP dated June 12, 2024 of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court .

Regarding fishing vessels that lost VMS connection for more than 6 hours at sea, the province has handled 301/455 fishing vessels, reaching 66.15%; of which, decisions were issued to administratively sanction 257 vessels with a fine of over 7 billion VND, and 44 fishing vessels have closed their files without administrative sanctions. Currently, 154 fishing vessels are being verified for further handling according to regulations.

In order to remove the "Yellow Card" warning from the European Commission, the People's Committee of Ninh Binh province requested that relevant units specifically assign competent and professional officers and functional forces to monitor, control, and clearly grasp the anchorage location of each fishing vessel that is not qualified to participate in aquatic exploitation (not registered, not inspected, not licensed, not marked, not equipped with VMS equipment, etc.), ensuring synchronous and smooth coordination between sectors and localities in preventing fishing vessels from illegally exploiting.

Units deploy operations to monitor and supervise each fishing vessel and fisherman at high risk of violating illegal fishing in foreign waters, intermediaries, prevent and handle them right on shore and at sea; prevent fishing vessels from violating foreign waters; guide fishermen to declare procedures for arriving and departing from ports on the eCDT and VneID electronic systems; consult and propose funding for declaring electronic logbooks and automatic location reporting software on the fishing vessel journey monitoring system in accordance with regulations.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/kinh-te/chong-khai-thac-iuu-quyet-liet-xu-ly-tau-ca-3-khong-20250925081741731.htm