EC reschedules IUU fishing inspection in Vietnam

The European Commission (EC) has rescheduled an inspection on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Vietnam from May to September or October this year, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien.

The EC is supposed to wait for the results of implementing the Vietnamese Government Decrees No. 37 and 38 issued last month on administrative fines in the field of fisheries, Mr. Tien said at a meeting held on May 21 to carry out  measures against IUU fishing.

The EC requested Vietnam to increase the rate of handling violations to at least 30% to consider the removal of the “yellow card”, he said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam will continue to take stricter actions to have the EC’s 'yellow card' removed this year.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung, Director of the Fisheries Resources Surveillance Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,  said the department plans to inspect 28 centrally-run coastal cities and provinces from now until the EC’s visit.

He proposed key measures to be taken in the coming time, including minimizing violations committed by local fishing vessels in foreign waters and strictly enforcing regulations; strengthening vessel management, ensuring that 100% of the vessels have a vessel monitoring system (VMS) installed; and strictly punishing violators.