On October 26, the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee issued an urgent dispatch requesting coastal localities to strengthen direction and drastically implement urgent tasks to combat illegal fishing (IUU), strictly implementing the Prime Minister's conclusion.
According to the Provincial People's Committee, in the past week, the work of combating IUU fishing in the area has recorded some positive changes. However, the progress of handling existing problems and limitations is still slow and has not met the requirements.
Notably, there are still 670/2,798 fishing vessels (accounting for 23.95%) that have not been licensed, concentrated in localities such as: Hoa Hiep Ward (31.1%), Xuan Dai (35.97%), Hoa Xuan (40.26%), Tuy An Dong (17.79%), O Loan (29.22%), Tuy An Nam (20.09%)...
The number of unlicensed ships in some localities such as Hoa Hiep, Hoa Xuan, Xuan Dai has decreased significantly (65%, 49 and 54 ships respectively). However, these are still the localities with the highest rate of unlicensed ships in the province.
The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has severely criticized the above localities in the dispatch issued on October 15, 2025 for their lack of drastic direction and management, and for not creating clear changes.
The Provincial People's Committee requests the Chairmen of the People's Committees of coastal communes and wards to enhance the role and responsibility of leaders, mobilize all forces to support fishermen in completing documents and procedures for granting fishing vessel licenses. The goal is to achieve 100% of eligible vessels licensed to operate before October 30, 2025.
In addition, the province requires coastal communes and wards such as Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen, Binh Kien, Hoa Hiep, Hoa Xuan, Xuan Dai, Song Cau, Xuan Canh, Xuan Loc, Tuy An Dong, Tuy An Nam, O Loan to focus on implementing 3 key groups of tasks:
Mobilize the entire political system, from the police, border guards, residential groups to organizations to participate in monitoring and promptly preventing fishing vessels with signs of violating foreign waters.
Comprehensively review the fleet, go to each alley, knock on each door to guide fishermen to complete the registration, inspection, and licensing procedures according to regulations.
Sealing and closely monitoring 100% of unqualified vessels, absolutely not leaving fishing gear and equipment on board, preventing illegal sea lanes.
The Provincial People's Committee emphasized that the Chairmen of the People's Committees of coastal communes and wards must be directly responsible for the results of combating IUU fishing in the locality.
If serious violations continue to occur such as fishing vessels violating foreign waters, losing VMS connection en masse or delaying the licensing progress, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee will consider handling the responsibility of the leader without taking steps to criticize or review.
With strong direction, Dak Lak aims to complete 100% of fishing vessel licensing on time, creating a clear change in the fight against IUU fishing. This is an important step to remove the "yellow card" of the European Commission (EC) for the Vietnamese seafood industry.
