Kien Giang: The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang will take drastic measures from now until the end of April to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in anticipation of the fifth working round with the inspection delegation from the European Commission (EC) in May.

Accordingly, the provincial border guard force is tasked with inspecting, verifying and dealing with fishing vessels caught encroaching upon foreign waters before April 30. The controlling of vessels entering and leaving border checkpoints should be tightened.

The province asked the Coast Guard Region 4 High Command to coordinate with competent forces to launch peak campaigns on patrolling in the offshore area of Kien Giang as well as overlapping and undefined sea areas between Vietnam and other countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia until April and strictly handle violations, thus putting an end to illegal fishing in foreign waters in the locality.

Relevant agencies are assigned to work with localities
to step up inspections to prevent vessels without registration and fishing licences or those without certificates that prove their seaworthiness (vessels with 3 NOs) from operating at sea. They must ensure that fishing boats are monitored around the clock via the monitoring system and thoroughly deal with those that violate vessel monitoring system requirement and infringement of foreign waters.

Chairman of provincial People’s Committee Lam Minh Thanh has asked local relevant agencies to ramp up the fight against IUU fishing in an effort to have the EC’s ‘yellow card’ warning against Vietnam’s seafood exports lifted, considering it an important task./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency