The Da Nang government has issued a plan on preventing and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the city for the 2023 - 2025 period.

A corner of the Tho Quang fishing wharf (Photo: DNO)

Accordingly, it is necessary to raise awareness of legal regulations amongst local fishermen and relevant organisations to prevent IUU fishing.

In particular, offshore fishing vessel owners and captains are still highly recommended to strictly comply with the provisions of the Vietnamese Fisheries Law 2017 and its guiding documents.

Also, they shall strictly keep a fishing log book, report on fishing, install and operate fishing vessel monitoring equipment to ensure compliance with regulations and sign a commitment to avoiding illegally exploiting seafood in foreign waters and IUU fishing.

Heed will be paid to controlling the number of fishing boats of Da Nang and other cities and provinces leaving and docking at the Tho Quang fishing wharf, fully implementing the process of monitoring fishery output from fishing to loading/unloading through the wharf, with comparison with ship records, monitoring journey and fishing log papers to ensure that the output through the wharf does not commit IUU fishing.

At the same time, relevant agencies shall fully update the city's fishing vessel data and the results of sanctioning IUU fishing acts into the database software system for monitoring and management according to regulations.

Since the 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.

Reporting by VAN HOANG - Translating by A.THU