(VOVworld) - The Vietnam Fisheries Association on Monday issued a document to protest China’s illegal ban on fishing in the East Vietnam Sea.

The opposition followed the announcement by authorities of Haikou, in China’s Hainan Province, of a ban on all fishing activities in the sea area from 12 degrees north parallel to the border of the waters of China’s Guangdong Province with Fujian Province (including the Tonkin Gulf). The ban is applied from 12:00 pm on May 16 to 12:00 pm on August 1, 2015.

The Vietnam Fisheries Association said that this act by China violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago and sovereign right and jurisdiction over the waters under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The association asked Vietnamese authorities to deploy law-enforcing ships to protect local fishermen from possible threats by Chinese ships, and create good conditions for them to operate in waters under Vietnam’s sovereignty.