Resolutely combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

On the afternoon of October 15, Comrade Le Duc Giang, Provincial Party Committee member and Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired a meeting to direct the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the province. Attending the meeting were representatives of member sectors and coastal districts, towns and cities.

Overview of the conference.

According to the report at the conference, the fight against IUU fishing in the province has achieved remarkable results in recent times. The fight against IUU fishing has received the attention of the entire political system from the province to the grassroots. The awareness of officials and people about fighting against IUU fishing has been significantly raised.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Van Cuong reports on the work of combating IUU fishing.

Delegates attending the conference.

As of October 14, Thanh Hoa province had 2,774/2,774 fishing vessels marked according to regulations, reaching 100%. For "2 no" and "3 no" fishing vessels, 74 fishing vessels have been registered. Fishing vessels installed with journey monitoring devices reached a rate of 99.5%. Since the beginning of the year, functional forces in the province have fined 147 violations with a total fine of 1.63 billion VND.

However, the whole province has 33 fishing vessels registered in Thanh Hoa province that have been sold but no information about the buyer has been found; there are still fishing vessels that have not completed registration, inspection, have not been granted fishing licenses, and have not been granted food safety certificates; the situation of fishing vessels losing connection to monitor their journeys at sea is still happening; the handling rate of fishing vessels losing connection to monitor their journeys at sea for 10 days is low.

Representative of Border Guard Command spoke at the conference.

At the conference, representatives of member industries and coastal localities discussed and pointed out the difficulties and causes leading to the shortcomings and limitations and proposed a number of solutions to overcome them in the work of registration, inspection, granting of seafood exploitation licenses, certificates of facilities meeting food safety conditions...

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Duc Giang spoke at the conference.

Concluding the conference, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Duc Giang acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts of the Party Committee, the government, and the sectors in implementing the work of combating IUU fishing, especially during the recent peak period. However, besides the achieved results, the implementation of the work of combating IUU fishing still has many limitations such as: coordination is not really smooth, some officers still implement the tasks in a perfunctory manner.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized: There are 4 contents that need attention to remove the "yellow card" for the Vietnamese fisheries industry, which are: fishing vessel management; fishing vessel supervision; management of aquatic product output through ports; law enforcement. However, these 4 contents have not been seriously and effectively implemented by localities and sectors. Meanwhile, the time for the EC Inspection Delegation to inspect the work of overcoming the "yellow card" in Vietnam is still very short.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in coordination with the locality, the Provincial Police and Border Guard forces, complete the registration, inspection, licensing, and issuance of food safety certificates for fishing vessels before October 25, 2024. Establish inter-sectoral inspection teams to strengthen patrols and control of coastal areas, and strictly handle violations. Strengthen responsibility and specify tasks for each officer and leader in implementing the work of combating IUU fishing.

The Provincial Border Guard Command needs to strictly control fishing vessels entering and leaving fishing ports, estuaries, fishing wharves, and spontaneous anchorage areas; investigate and strictly handle violations; organize peak patrol periods and handle violations.

People's Committees of coastal districts, towns, cities and Thanh Hoa City focus on directing the local Interdisciplinary Team, People's Committees of communes and wards of fisheries to inspect, verify and thoroughly handle violations in the area. Complete the registration and licensing of fishing vessels under 12m under the management level in the area, compile a specific list of fishing vessels under 6m for strict management. Require "3 no" vessels not to keep equipment and fishing gear on board, require "3 no" fishing vessel owners to bring equipment and machinery ashore, to be completed before October 25.

The provincial police continue to monitor and guide the People's Committees of coastal districts, towns and cities to thoroughly handle violations in the implementation of the province's support policies in the fisheries sector. At the same time, they must grasp the situation and the subjects, not allow complaints or large gatherings; investigate and handle ships entering and unloading at ports spontaneously.

Thanh Hoa Newspaper, Provincial Radio and Television Station, sectors and localities continue to propagate so that officials and people understand and agree to combat IUU fishing to remove the EC's "yellow card".

Thuy Linh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/kien-quyet-chong-khai-thac-hai-san-bat-hop-phap-khong-bao-cao-va-khong-theo-quy-dinh-227687.htm