The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will give specific instructions to each coastal locality on the prevention and combat of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing instead of general directions for all 28 coastal cities and provinces, according to Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien.

The effort is aimed at ensuring the close management of fishing vessels’ operation, especially their installation of vessel monitoring system (VMS), the official said while chairing a meeting of the ministry’s working group on IUU prevention and control on August 31.

Localities must also know the locations of out-of-service vessels, and strictly handle vessels with violations of VMS installation regulations, he stressed.

Deputy Minister Tien underlined the need to closely control movements of fishing vessels at ports as well as the origin of caught seafood.

To make sure fishing vessels will not violate foreign waters, the officials called for stronger engagement of the Ministry of National Defence and more efficient cooperation between the ministry and the MARD.

He also called on seafood processing and exporting firms not to buy seafood caught by IUU activities.

The official also pointed to the need to complete the amendment and supplementation of relevant legal documents regarding the implementation of the Fisheries Law and regulations on handling violations in fisheries activities by October before the EC inspection team arrives in Vietnam.

Earlier, at a conference to seek measures to promote IUU prevention and control, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang assigned the MARD to build a plan detailing necessary tasks to be conducted to persuade the EC to remove the “yellow card” against Vietnam’s seafood export./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency