Ninh Thuan (VNA) – The central coastal province of Ninh Thuan has issued a plan to launch a peak campaign against illegal, unreported and undocumented fishing (IUU), said Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Huyen.
Huyen said the province will continue raising awareness of the legal demands to prevent illegal fishing in overseas waters, and effectively operate vessel monitoring devices.
The locality will also enhance the management of fishing vessels, update information on the national fisheries database VNfishbase and grant fishing and food safety licences to vessels in line with origin tracing regulations.
Patrols will be enhanced and violations will be strictly punished.
A coordination mechanism between authorities of Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan and Ba Ria-Vung Tau has been issued to fight the problem.
The provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the provincial Border Guard High Command have been instructed to work with localities with waters bordering foreign countries on the regard.
So far, all 812 fishing vessels 15m long in Ninh Thuan have been licensed to fish offshore and 806 of them have received food safety certificates. Meanwhile, 798 of those vessels, or 98.3%, have been equipped with monitoring devices, said head of the provincial Fisheries Sub-Department Dang Van Tin.
Since the beginning of this year, the sub-department has conducted over 30 patrols at sea and imposed administrative fines on 21 cases. No vessel has been found to violate foreign waters or commit IUU fishing./.