According to a report by the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dong Thap province, through reviewing and assessing the current situation of fishing vessels, it shows that the fleet of fishing vessels operating in the open and coastal areas accounts for a fairly large proportion. The whole province currently has 1,505 fishing vessels, of which 575 fishing vessels operate in this area, accounting for 38.2% of the total number of fishing vessels of the province. In which, the structure of trawling vessels has 495 vessels; trawling vessels (trawling vessels, offshore vessels, bottom vessels...) have 220 vessels, accounting for 47.45% of the whole province's fleet.
This situation poses a potential risk of affecting aquatic resources and the ecological environment, so it is necessary to switch to other fishing professions to ensure reasonable exploitation, balance with reserves and capacity to allow exploitation of aquatic resources, towards the goal of sustainable development, restoration and regeneration of aquatic resources, and at the same time stabilize livelihoods for fishermen. In addition, the whole province currently has 210 fishing vessels that do not meet operating conditions due to not being licensed, licenses that have expired, expired registration or have not installed journey monitoring equipment (VMS).
Dong Thap province has 933 fishing vessels with a length of 15 m or more that are required to install journey monitoring equipment according to the provisions of the 2017 Fisheries Law. However, most VMS equipment has been used for over 5 years, and has now deteriorated, frequently lost connection and does not meet technical conditions as prescribed, so it needs to be upgraded or replaced.
From the above reality, recently, the People's Committee of Dong Thap province issued a submission to the Provincial People's Council on the draft Resolution stipulating policies to support career change and diversion for fishing vessels that no longer need to operate in the province.
According to the draft, the level of compensation support for fishing vessels that do not need to continue operating is equal to 40% of the value of the fishing vessel according to the valuation certificate, but does not exceed the maximum support level for each group of vessels, specifically: fishing vessels with the largest length from 6 m to less than 12 m support no more than 50 million VND/vessel; from 12 m to less than 15 m no more than 100 million VND/vessel; from 15 m to less than 24 m no more than 250 million VND/vessel; fishing vessels with the largest length from 24 m or more no more than 350 million VND/vessel.
In addition, ship owners and individuals who are crew members in households with fishing boats participating in vocational conversion are supported with 3 million VND/person/course. The support is based on the number of members in the household actually changing their profession, but not exceeding 4 people/household.
In parallel, in order to strengthen the monitoring of fishing vessel journeys, maintain the connection of the journey monitoring equipment system and ensure compliance with regulations on exploitation management and combating IUU exploitation, Dong Thap Provincial People's Committee has also issued a submission to the Provincial People's Council on the draft Resolution stipulating policies to support upgrading and replacing journey monitoring equipment of fishing vessels to meet the conditions according to Decree No. 37/2024/ND-CP of the Government and maintain the connection of the journey monitoring equipment system of fishing vessels in the province.
According to the draft, the level of support for upgrading journey monitoring equipment is calculated according to actual invoices but not exceeding 10,000,000 VND/fishing vessel; The level of support for replacing journey monitoring equipment is calculated according to actual invoices but not exceeding 24,000,000 VND/fishing vessel; The level of support for satellite subscription fees of fishing vessel journey monitoring equipment is calculated according to actual invoices but not exceeding 400,000 VND/month/1 fishing vessel, even during the time the fishing vessel is anchored at shore.
