EC to inspect Vietnam’s fight against IUU fishing March 9-19
(VOVWORLD) - A delegation from the European Commission will visit Vietnam from March 9 to 19 to inspect the country’s efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to the Department of Fishery and Fisheries Surveillance under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
 Border guards in Da Nang City inspect communication equipment on a local fishing vessel. (Photo: Do Truong/VNA) |
To ensure thorough and coordinated preparations for the EC’s fifth mission, coastal provinces and cities with fishing fleets have been asked to urgently finalise comprehensive reports with data that are verifiable and consistent with the national fisheries database (VNFishbase) and other relevant systems.
Strict measures must be enforced to control vessel departures and arrivals, ensuring that all vessels subject to mandatory vessel monitoring system (VMS) installation maintain uninterrupted connections. All seafood landed through ports must be closely monitored, while regulations on catch and origin certification must be strictly implemented.
Localities have also been instructed to review and update all fishing vessel data on the VNFishbase and VMS systems to ensure consistency between paper dossiers and electronic records.
The Department of Fishery and Fisheries Surveillance urged coastal localities to treat these tasks as urgent and critical in order to have the EC’s “yellow card” warning on Vietnamese seafood exports lifted.