Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – The European Commission (EC)has made positive assessment of Vietnam’s fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)fishing following two inspections in the past over three years since EC imposeda “yellow card” on Vietnam’s export of aquatic products to Europe.

Vietnamhas continued to intensify its supervision of fishing activities towards havingthe yellow card removed.

In thefirst nine months of last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) assigned the task of updating and using the Vnfishbase softwareto 28 coastal cities and provinces, said the Directorate of Fisheries.

TheDirectorate of Fisheries also established a team to conduct surprise inspectionsof the management of fishing vessels and fishing activities as well as theupdate of data on the software in several localities.

It wasfound that there had been cases when fishing vessels were cut off from the monitoringsystem. Localities attributed the problem to connection cut due to delays inpaying satellite fees, technical errors and unknown causes.

Directorof the Ca Mau provincial Department of Information and Communications Tran QuocChinh said the number of local fishing vessels committing illegal fishing inforeign waters has reduced year after year thanks to the intensified inspectionand communication activities.

VicePresident of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Nguyen ThiThu Sac said since the “yellow card” was imposed on Vietnam’s aquatic products,export to the European market has dropped by 30 percent.

The Governmenthas taken legal measures against vessels that violate the Law on Fisheries 2017,with some even facing a fine of up to 2 billion VND (86,000 USD).

Sac saidthe EU is a very important market for Vietnam, and stressed that businesses andfishermen must join hands with the Government to have the yellow card removed./.