EC inspectors to work with Ba Ria - Vung Tau on combating IUU fishing

According to the plan, the team will examine the situation of seafood exploitation and processing in Ba Ria-Vung province. This marks the fourth time that the inspection team has visited the locality to recognize the locality’s efforts and determination to fight IUU fishing.

Specifically, the team will seek to examine the control of fishing vessels violating foreign waters, fishing vessels entering and exiting ports, fishing vessels operating at sea, IUU fishing activities at fishing ports, and the output of Ba Ria - Vung Tau.

Furthermore, it will check the implementation of regulations on installation of cruise monitoring equipment, operational management and data processing of fishing vessels that lose connection, and go outside Vietnamese waters.

The team will also check regulations relating to the registration and exploitation licenses for fishing vessels, make a list of IUU fishing vessels, a list of fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing, and responsibilities of captains of all fishing vessels.

The work of confirming and certifying the origin of exploited seafood for shipments exported to Europe will also be inspected by the EC in Ba Ria - Vung Tau.

Most notably, the delegation will also work alongside a few businesses that have shipments exported to Europe in order to check documents and procedures for confirming and certifying seafood materials exploited in Vietnamese waters and imported materials.

According to Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, the province will provide practical evidence and results of implementing the EC’s recommendations on combating IUU fishing so that they can consider removing the warning "yellow card" placed on the Vietnamese seafood industry.

Before working with the EC, on October 6 and October 7 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will work alongside the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province to check the implementation of the recommendations of the EC on combating IUU fishing in the area.

Recently, the MARD adopted a master plan for the upcoming fourth working session, scheduled to run from October 10 to October 18, with the EC’s inspection team over the country’s efforts to combat IUU fishing.

The team will consist of representatives of the EC’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and Delegation in Vietnam.

The inspection targets the implementation of the EC recommendations on IUU fishing, with a specific emphasis placed on the monitoring of fishing vessel activities in Vietnamese waters, vessel arrivals, departures at ports and their activities at sea, imported raw materials, and origin tracing of seafood from fishing.