MEKSEA.COM – The European Commission (EC) highly appreciates Vietnamese efforts in combating illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Currently, the traceability of Vietnamese goods exported to the EU market has fewer errors and returns than in previous years.

According to a representative of the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the EC wants to go to Vietnam to check the facts for new recommendations for Vietnam in the roadmap to lift the “yellow card”.

However, EC still pointed out some shortcomings that we have not been able to solve, including the management and operation of the cruise monitoring equipment system for fishing boats.

Vietnam strives to lift the “yellow card”

In October 2017, besides “yellow card” warning for seafood, the EC made 9 recommendations for Vietnam.

Currently, the number of fishing boats in Vietnam has decreased, replaced by promoting marine farming. The number of fishing boats over 15m is equipped with cruise monitoring has reached over 90.8% so far.

The status of Vietnamese fishing boats violating seafood exploitation in Pacific island countries and countries has ended. The number of fishing boats violating the waters of countries in the region has also decreased significantly year by year.

Law enforcement and strict penalties for IUU fishing have been strengthened with the number of fines being 2,700 cases, totaling nearly 66 billion VND.

After visiting Vietnam in 2018 and 2019, the European Commission’s inspection team highly appreciated and recognized Vietnam’s commitment, political determination, and efforts in combating IUU illegal fishing.

However, despite affirming that Vietnam has made a lot of progress and is on the right track, the EC still continues to give 4 groups of recommendations that Vietnam needs to continue to implement in the coming time.

Effectiveness from the IUU surveillance community model

During the past 4 years, Vietnam has made many efforts with different methods to soon lift “yellow card” of seafood. Many good models have been proposed to propagate and remind fishermen to fish in our waters.

In the process of fishing, many of these fishermen volunteered to monitor and supervise the observance of the Fisheries Law and regulations on anti-IUU fishing. When detecting violations, fishermen will notify and coordinate with functional forces to prevent and handle them.

The community IUU team is mainly local fishermen, operating according to its self-management and operating funds mainly from the contributions of its members. Up to now, the community IUU monitoring team has attracted the participation of many fishermen operating in the area.

The implementation of the IUU monitoring community model not only helps the community to improve their responsibilities, join hands with local authorities and functional agencies to protect aquatic resources but also makes an important contribution to the fight against IUU fishing.

In addition, the EU emphasized that “If there is still one illegal fishing boat, “yellow card” will not be withdrawn”, therefore, this is an important stage that determines whether or not Vietnam’s seafood industry completes the goal of removing “yellow card” in the following year and at the latest in 2023.

By Hayati (Meksea Team)

(hayati@mekseaconnection.com)

(Reference: VASEP)

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