On October 17, Mr. Ha Sy Dong - Permanent Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province - confirmed that the People's Committee of Quang Tri province has directed relevant units to focus on leading and directing the task of combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing).
Quang Tri province assigned specific tasks to each unit, along with a completion timeline.
For the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Tri province, Quang Tri province requires to completely resolve the existing problems and limitations in IUU fishing.
Must complete the issuance of fishing licenses, registration, inspection of fishing vessels, issuance of certificates of facilities meeting food safety and hygiene conditions, installation of VMS equipment; thoroughly handle "3 no" fishing vessels, fully update fishing vessel data on the national fisheries database.
It is necessary to closely monitor, supervise and control fishing vessels operating at sea. Review and thoroughly handle cases of violations of regulations on VMS disconnection since the 4th inspection by the European Committee (EC) Inspection Team.
Organize patrols and controls at sea and strictly handle IUU fishing activities. In particular, it is necessary to thoroughly apply the provisions of Resolution No. 04 dated June 12, 2024 guiding the application of a number of provisions of the Penal Code.
Criminal liability will be prosecuted for acts related to illegal exploitation, trading, and transportation of aquatic products; in which the subjects of focus are identified as ringleaders, owners of facilities, enterprises purchasing, processing, consuming, and exporting aquatic products, ship owners, captains... who condone and assist IUU fishing.
“If there is a delay in carrying out administrative procedures for granting fishing licenses, resulting in incidents of unqualified fishing vessels still entering and leaving fishing ports; fishing vessels not declaring their entry and exit from ports; or the collection of fishing logs is not reliable, then the responsibility lies with the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Tri province,” emphasized Mr. Ha Sy Dong.
Quang Tri province will also hold the Commander of the Quang Tri Provincial Border Guard Command responsible if fishing vessels that do not meet the conditions still leave or enter port to participate in fishing activities; fishing vessels with a length of 6m or more leave or enter port but do not carry out port entry and exit procedures according to regulations; fishing vessels with a length of 6m to less than 15m leave or enter port but do not carry out strict inspection and control.
In addition to the two directly related units mentioned above, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province also assigned specific tasks to the Quang Tri Provincial Police, the People's Committees of coastal districts and Con Co island district. And the time to implement overcoming the shortcomings and limitations of the content of the work against IUU fishing in the locality is the end of October 2024.
The total number of fishing vessels in Quang Tri province as of the end of September 2024 was 2,648, of which 192 vessels were at high risk of violating illegal fishing. To contribute to the whole country in removing the "yellow card" of the European Committee for Vietnamese seafood exported to the European market, the work of combating IUU fishing in Quang Tri has been and is being vigorously implemented.
