Tam Hai island commune in Nui Thanh district, the central province of Quang Nam, which owns the strongest fishing boat fleet in Quang Nam, has seen a considerable change in local fishermen’s awareness of fisheries regulations and the prevention and combat of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing thanks to effective communications efforts of local authorities.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has asked localities to take strong measures to fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and prepare for the visit by the European Commission’s inspection team in October to assess Vietnam’s progress in combating IUU fishing.

Installing Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) equipment and supervising their operations play an important role in removing the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” warning on Vietnamese seafood.

The south-central province of Binh Dinh is determined to have no local fishing boats violating foreign waters in the next six months before the European Commission (EC) review the “yellow card” against Vietnamese fisheries sector, according to Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Ho Quoc Dung.

The central coastal province of Thanh Hoa has made public a list of 344 fishing vessels showing high risks of violating regulations against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has asked coastal localities to coordinate in handling the fishing boats that lose contact with the vessel monitoring system (VMS) for more than 10 days at sea.

Vietnam still has a lot of things to do to have the European Commission (EC)’s ‘yellow card’ warning on Vietnamese seafood removed, according to Standing Vice President of the Vietnam Fisheries Society (VINAFIS) Nguyen Chu Hoi.

Four coastal provinces have completed the installation of vessel monitoring systems (VMS) equipment on all fishing boats with a length of 15m and more, according to the Directorate of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

All the 28 coastal provinces have made efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and reaped positive outcomes.

Installing vessel monitoring systems (VMS) is one of the important measures the European Commission (EC) recommended for Vietnam to remove the EC’s “yellow card” warning against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.