Da Nang is stepping up the dissemination of legal regulations on offshore fishing activities to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in order to tackle the European Commission’s IUU yellow card.

Many fishing boats being anchored at the Tho Quang fishing wharf (Photo: baodanang.vn)

Mr Dang Duy Hai, the Deputy head of the city’s Fisheries Sub-department, said the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has worked with relevant agencies to instruct fishermen to conduct legal fishing by organising classes on relevant laws.

To date, seven classes have been held, attracting representatives from 20 export enterprises and nearly 400 fishermen who are ship owners or captains.

However, Hai said that the declaration of seafood origins is facing many difficulties, as some fishermen want to hide their fishing grounds and locations.

Stressing the importance of origin declaration, Nguyen Lai, a representative from the city’s Tho Quang Navigation Lock and Fishing Port Management Board, said the management board has taken measures to trace seafood origin and punish violators.

Since the beginning of this year, Tho Quang market has conducted 6,996 origin declarations on a total of 24,500 tonnes of seafood of all kinds, Lai added.

Fisherman Nguyen Vu said that he has got used to keeping track of his catches, because when the EU tightens regulations on businesses, businesses will tighten regulations on fishermen.

Therefore, if fishermen do not provide a fishing diary, firms would not purchase their seafood, Vu said. He added that there should be closer links between fishermen, local authorities and businesses to facilitate the granting of certification for seafood catches.

In September 2017, the European Commission issued a yellow card warning Viet Nam for failing to progress in fighting IUU fishing.

The EU will assess Viet Nam’s efforts to fight IUU fishing in late April. The "yellow card" is followed by a "green card" if the problem is resolved or a "red card" if it isn’t. A “red card” can lead to a trade ban on fishery products.

Together with Da Nang, other localities along the Vietnamese coast are exerting efforts to fight IUU fishing.

(Source: VNA)