(VOVWORLD) - The number of Thanh Hoa province’s fishing vessels conducting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has greatly decreased thanks to efforts to strictly abiding by the European Commission’s recommendations. The coast guard has worked hard to increase management of and communications to fishermen.
 Fishing vessels dock at Hoang Truong wharf after doing offshore fishing. (Photo: nhandan.vn) |
Thanh Hoa’s coast guard force has gone to each house and each fishing vessel to check safety and communications devices, fishing gear, and each fisherman's identity before embarking or making a landfall, and has asked boat owners to sign a pledge not to violate IUU fishing regulations.
Captain Bui Quoc Dung, Head of the Quang Cu Border Guard Post, said, “We have coordinated with relevant agencies to ascertain the latest changes in administrative documents, registration, and fishing licenses, and the embarkation and landing procedures for fishermen and fishing vessel owners. Communications have been stepped up to make sure vessel owners don’t encroach on foreign waters.”
“We have disseminated IUU regulations to the fishermen. They now understand that encroaching on foreign waters or using electric shocks or other explosives for fishing are violations,” according to Captain Le Van Phuong of the Hoang Truong Border Guard Post.
Thanh Hoa has 6,500 fishing vessels, one fourth of which do offshore fishing. The province has added data on more than 2,700 fishing vessels to the national fishery database (Vnfishbase) to unify operations and facilitate data collection, examination, and management. It has also installed a vessel monitoring system (VMS) on more than 1,100 fishing vessels.
Le Van Hung, a fisherman from Hoang Hoa district, said, “Thanks to the instruction of the border guard force, we only fish from the Nghe An estuary to Da Nang city. While catching seafood, we strictly comply with State regulations.”
Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Hoan, Head of the Hoang Truong Border Guard Post, says that in addition to regular patrols at sea, the provincial border guards have worked closely with local authorities and fishing port management boards to organize joint patrols to curb IUU fishing and handle violations.
“We have done the monitoring at the wharf, coordinated with local authorities to provide communications, and stopped vessels that haven’t completed the procedures from going fishing. As a result, no violations have been recorded,” said Hoan.
 Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Hoan, Head of the Hoang Truong Border Guard Post. (Photo: thanhhoa.gov.vn) |
According to Do Xuan Chung, Chairman of the Hai Thanh ward People's Committee in Nghi Son town, “The border guards, the fishing port management board, and local administrations have jointly met each family, each boat owner, and each captain to encourage them to fulfill their commitments. So far few of the fishing vessels in Hai Thanh ward have broken fishing rules.
Since the beginning of this year, Thanh Hoa province's border guard has coordinated with authorities to conduct hundreds of communications sessions and inspections of offshore fishing vessels.
This has changed fishermen's perception of fishing towards removing the yellow card imposed on Vietnam's fishing industry by the EC.