Vietnam’s government has set the goal of completely ending illegal fishing by its nationals in other countries within the next six months.
The issue of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) was a central factor in the European Commission’s decision to hand down a yellow card to Vietnam in October 2017.
Central government bodies and 28 coastal provinces and cities were directed to make full use of their resources to do away with all infringements by Vietnamese fishermen in waters of other countries, Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said in a statement released last week.
In a meeting earlier this month, Dung asked the Ministry of National Defense to use its forces to stop IUU fishing activities by Vietnamese fishermen overseas before the European Commission makes its third inspection visit to Vietnam, possibly in the next six months.
A delegation of inspectors led by Director for the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ International Ocean Governance and Sustainable Fisheries of the E.C. Veronika Veits were in Vietnam from 5 to 14 November to evaluate the yellow card imposed on the country's seafood industry two years ago. This was the second time that the E.C. conducted an inspection following the imposition of the yellow card.
Meeting with the deputy prime minister on 14 November, Veits urged Vietnam’s government to take more drastic action to prevent fishermen from operating illegally in waters of other countries.
Dung told officials in the meeting earlier this month that the E.C. had lauded Vietnam in implementing its recommendations, saying that the country is on the right track in tackling IUU fishing. However, several shortcomings remained, including incursions by Vietnamese fishermen into the waters of other countries, failures to install monitoring devices in all necessary fishing boats, and limited monitoring of ships’ docking and entry to national fishing ports.
Dung said the lifting of the yellow card would not only help boost the country’s seafood exports, but also enable Vietnam to sustainably develop its seafood sector. In the long-term, Vietnam needs to concentrate more on aquaculture while downscaling the fishing sector, he added. The deputy prime minister has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to draft a new strategy for seafood development, with a special focus on ocean farming.
Vietnam has a fishing fleet of more than 120,000 fishing boats. As the domestic aquatic resources have been depleted, the country’s fishermen have shifted to new fishing grounds in other countries, against international law.
Photo courtesy of Quang Nguyen Vinh/Shutterstock
