Over recent times, like other coastal localities nationwide, Da Nang has stepped up the intensive publicity of legal regulations on offshore fishing activities to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Da Nang functional forces brief local fishermen in Tho Quang Ward, Son Tra District, on the fight against illegal fishing. (Photo taken in April 2021). Photo: NGUYEN QUANG

All fishermen, businesses, and local authorities has considered this an important and urgent task to join hands with others across the country to affirm the prestige of Viet Nam’s fisheries sector in the world and among countries it shares territorial waters with, and be resolved to meet the standards set by the European Commission (EC).

Da Nang currently houses 1,241 fishing vessels with an average capacity of 324CV involved in coastal, inshore and offshore fishing.

Since the European Commission (EC) gave a “yellow card” warning to Viet Nam’s fisheries and seafood in the European market in October 2017, the entire sector has suffered marked losses. It is necessary to prevent, deter, and eliminate IUU fishing in order to remove the “yellow card” warning, develop fisheries responsibly, and integrate into the world.

Over the past time, competent agencies in Da Nang have coordinated with one another to carry out many publicity and support activities for fishermen to head out to sea and make seafood catches in the Vietnamese waters in compliance with regulations in a bid to ensure their livelihoods and ensure sustainable fishery development.

The national government and the National Steering Committee on IUU Fishing Prevention have issued a range of documents instructing ministries, agencies, and People’s Committees in 28 coastal cities and provinces to drastically take preventive measures. The MARD has conducted regular inspections in localities.

Viet Nam has joined and realised the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s Agreement on Port State Measures, whose main objective is to prevent, deter, and eliminate IUU fishing, and also the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. Encouragingly, the EC has highly valued Viet Nam’s political determination to implement its recommendations in this regard.

Fisherman Tran Huu Loi, 56, residing in Tho Quang Ward, Son Tra District, Da Nang shared, “The regulation against IUU fishing is not strange to offshore fishermen like us. However, not everyone has fully understood the dos and don'ts in fishing. Therefore, publicity sessions on legitimate fishing are really helpful to fishermen.”

The Authority of Tho Quang Fishing Wharf is directly in charge of managing the operations of fishing vessels hailing from Da Nang and elsewhere in Central Viet Nam, and seafood consumption here.

According to Mr. Nguyen Lai, the Deputy Head of the Authority, in an effort to have the “yellow card” warning on Viet Nam's seafood industry lifted in the coming time, this agency has encouraged local fishermen to strictly adhere to the mandatory regulations on fishing activities through the distribution of leaflets and instructional materials, and offering publicity sessions on the fight against IUU fishing. Another task was to handle fishing vessels showing signs of violations.

The owners of fishing vessels docked at the Tho Quang Fishing Wharf are required to report to the venue’s management board about their sea journey diary containing the co-ordinates of fishing, the origin of their catches, the specific names of fishing grounds, the number of crew member on board their vessels, and other related issues.

The monitoring device installation is an effective measure against IUU fishing amongst ship owners and fishermen as requested by the European Commission for “yellow card” removal on the Vietnamese fishing industry.

In particular, according to Deputy Director of the Da Nang Fisheries Sub-Department Dang Duy Hai, in order to support fishermen to make fishing journeys in accordance with the regulations, since 2019, a total of 565 offshore fishing vessels in Da Nang measuring 15 meters in length and above have already voyage monitoring devices completely installed.

The installation was carried out by the Bureau of Fisheries under the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The municipal administration has implemented a project for reducing the number of under-20CV fishing vessels and coracles operating in the city’s inshore waters for the 2016 – 2020 period.

Through implementation, VND 6 billion in aid from the municipal budget was given to those whose under-20CV fishing vessels were dismantled and the funding of more than VND 89.2 billion went to the building of 110 new offshore fishing boats.

In addition, the local authorities have advised fishermen to avoid catching seafood during the spawning season, harvesting juvenile fish, using gunpowder, explosives and chemicals in fishing, thus helping conserve and protect coastal aquatic resources.

Reporting by LAM PHUONG- Translating by A.T