Ninh Thuan province's fishing vessels (Source: VNA)NinhThuan (VNA) – The south central province of Ninh Thuan is pushingahead with the popularization of the 2017 Law on Fisheries, to raisefishermen’s awareness about 14 illegal fishing acts and the need of obeying lawwhen joining offshore fishing.
This move is part of the province’s efforts to preventillegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) activities so as to joinhands with the nation to have the European Commission (EC) remove its yellowcard warning against Vietnam.
Ninh Thuan has a fleet of 567 fishing vessels involved inoffshore fishing and 43 services boats.
Dang Van Tin, head of the provincial Fisheries Department,said that the province is continuing to implement the EC’s four groups ofrecommendations, including completing the legal framework, installingmonitoring devices on fishing vessels, intensifying law enforcement, andtracing origins of aquatic products.
Attention is being paid to strengthening inspection andsupervision over operations of fishing vessels and their crew, as well as foodsafety and fishing tools; controlling the output and supervising fishinglogging at the fisheries control offices in Dong Hai port in Phan Rang – ThapCham city and Ca Na port in Thuan Nam district. All violations are punishedstrictly.
In addition, the province is accelerating the installation ofMovimar device - a system to monitor fishing vessels and aquatic resources bysatellite technology – with the goal of equipping all 15m-long or more vessels inApril. At present, 316 local fishing vessels have been equipped with thisdevice. Vessel owners are required to activate the device around the clock.
After more than two years of implementing the PrimeMinister’s Directive on IUU Fishing Prevention, Ninh Thuan has held 70 coursesdisseminating law for nearly 3,000 vessel owners, captains and fishermen, andpersuaded nearly 2,300 ship owners to sign commitments to not engage in illegalfishing in international waters.
To date, no local fishing vessels have been arrested forviolating international waters. However, there are still law violations such asusing destructive fishing tools, lacking safety equipment for fishing vessels,and having no documents on catching history.
In the time ahead, besides stepping up the fight against IUUfishing, Ninh Thuan will continue to restructure the fisheries sector to ensurethe harmonious development of fishing, limiting its effects on aquaticresources and the ecological environment.
In October 2017, Vietnam received a “yellow card” warning forillegal seafood exploitation by the EC, which has seriously hit exports to theEuropean market./.
VNA
