The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has completed 98.6 percent of its plan to equip fishing vessels with cruise control devices as part of measures to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Fishing vessels are anchored in Kien Giang's Rach Gia city (Photo: VNA)

The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has completed 98.6 percent of its plan to equip fishing vessels with cruise control devices as part of measures to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

According to the provincial steering committee for IUU fishing prevention, local authorities will continue to introduce synchronous measures to fight such activities towards an early removal of the “yellow card” warning issued by the European Commission (EC) to Vietnam’s fisheries sector.

Authorised agencies have stepped up communications work so that ship-owners, fishermen, organisations, and inpiduals closely observe relevant regulations.

Local authorities have strictly handled cases of illegally exploiting marine products in foreign waters.

Provincial police have been tasked with monitoring, investigating, and verifying cases in which local inpiduals or organisations linked with those in foreign countries to arrange for fishing vessels or fishermen to exploit marine products in foreign waters, or to return arrested fishermen to Vietnam by unofficial means in order to avoid fines imposed under Vietnamese law. 

A fishing vessel offshore Hon Dat district (Photo: VNA)

Meanwhile, the provincial Border Guard Command is responsible for investigating, verifying, and handling fishing vessels that violate foreign waters, especially those detected by the navy and coast guard.

Nguyen Van Dung, Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and also deputy head of the provincial steering committee for IUU fishing prevention, said local authorities have paid attention to inspecting and controlling the implementation of measures to prevent IUU fishing by vessels in international waters.

The province’s fisheries sub-department will work to complete the installation of cruise control devices on all vessels.

In the first quarter, local authorities fined five fishing vessel owners for removing or not operating cruise control devices. The locality strictly complied with EC recommendations on IUU and fined vessels violating regulations./.