Ben Tre has seen great improvement in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention and control. (Photo: VNA) Home to 1,725 fishing vessels, including 1,500 engaging inoffshore fishing activities, Ba Tri district is one of the three coastallocalities with fastest growth in Ben Tre's fisheries sector.
In order to secure sustainable development of the fisheriessector, the district has focused on educating local fishermen on violations of fisheriesregulations that could cause international export restrictions of Vietnamese products.
Major Le Minh Trung - Political Commissar of Ham Luong borderguard post said that the post has coordinated with the local administration ofcoastal communes in Ba Tri to review, evaluate and classify fishing boats withhigh risk of violating foreign waters.
The post has sent officers to households to popularise fisheries regulations and punishments for violations.
At the same time, it has strengthened communications via mass media and socialplatforms, ensuring that local fishermen understand all legal regulationsregarding fisheries activities, thus enhancing their awareness in complyingwith the law.
Pham Van Tuan, a local in An Thuy commune, Ba Tri district,who owns a fishing vessel, said that thanks to communications activities, hehas clearly seen the significance of installing the vessel monitoring system(VMS), which helps him and authorities to keep track of the movements of hisvessel at sea.
From 2022 to September 2023, the Ham Luong border guard postadvised the Ben Tre Border Guard High Command to apply administrative fines onsix fishing boat captains and seven boat owners with a total fine of nearly 6.5billion VND (267,027 USD).
With a 65-km coastline crossing three districts and 10communes, Ben Tre has great potential for fisheries development. Currently, ithas more than 2,760 fishing vessels, including 2,000 offshore fishing vessels.The province’s annual catch is over 200,000 tonnes.
Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee NguyenMinh Canh said that defining fisheries as a spearhead economic sector, Ben Trehas paid great attention to switching traditional fisheries to responsible andsustainable fisheries.
It has built a communications programme on IUU fishingprevention and control, while setting up a Steering Committee for IUU fishingprevention and control in 2017 with annual revision and elevation of the work.
Canh said that so far, Ben Tre has signed a coordinationagreement with eight coastal localities in fishing boat management, as well ascollaboration deals with the Coast Guard Regions 3 and 4 on IUU fishingprevention and control.
As a result, local fishermen's abiding byfisheries regulations has been greatly improved, while all fishing vessels haveinstalled the VMS and strictly follow procedures in vessel registration, fisheriesexploitation and operation recording./.
VNA
