The department has sent letters to the Vietnam Directorate of Fisheries and the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of other coastal localities as well as relevant agencies in the province, asking for their coordination in monitoring and inspecting the vessels.
Authorities at fishing ports across Thanh Hoa are also working with relevant agencies to control the movements of the vessels, preventing those that fail to meet requirements in documents and equipment to go offshore for fishing.
For vessels that often have their Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) loosing connections, the department has reminded them to stay connected.
Le Van Sang, Vice Director of the department, affirmed that vessels that have not fixed their VMS problems have been put under special control and not allowed to operate at sea.
In order to effectively implement regulations on IUU fishing prevention and combat, over the years, Thanh Hoa has strengthened communications and popularised the Fisheries Law 2017 and rules on IUU fishing fight through various measures, thus raising the awareness of local officials, ship owners and fishermen in protecting fisheries resources and removing the yellow card imposed by the European Commission on Vietnamese fisheries sector.
Since 2018, Thanh Hoa has seen no fishing boat violating regulations related to IUU fishing or foreign waters.
From 2021, Thanh Hoa has issued mechanisms and policies to support local ship owners to install VMS on their vessels. As a result, the device has been equipped on 96.6% of the total 1,166 fishing boats.
