The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has just issued an official dispatch directing: the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Justice, the Department of Information and Communications, the Department of Finance; Provincial Border Guard Command; Provincial Police; People's Committees of districts and Ca Mau city to continue focusing on implementing tasks and solutions to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and prepare to welcome and work with the 5th EC inspection delegation.
 

Continue to focus on implementing urgent and key tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing.
 

Accordingly, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee directs departments, branches, localities and units, according to their assigned functions and tasks, to continue to seriously and effectively implement Action Program No. 73-CTr/TU dated June 24, 2024 of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee; Plan No. 111/KH-UBND dated May 10, 2024; Plan No. 192/KH-UBND dated September 4, 2024 of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and directive documents on combating IUU fishing in the province; mobilize and arrange cadres with sufficient capacity and professional expertise to advise and direct the implementation of assigned tasks; promptly motivate, reward and review, strictly handle cases that fail to fulfill assigned duties and tasks; ensure resources, promptly complete the overcoming of shortcomings and limitations in combating IUU fishing; prepare the best content and conditions to welcome and work with the 5th EC inspection delegation; absolutely do not let passivity or surprise affect the effort to remove the “yellow card” warning.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shall preside over and coordinate with relevant departments, branches, localities and units to review and classify fishing vessels belonging to high-risk groups. Thereby, remove from the list vessels that have overcome risk factors, ensure proper operation or have verified that the vessel no longer exists or is no longer eligible to register for operation according to regulations and be responsible for the results of removing from the monitoring list or continuing to retain for monitoring. For vessels still on the high-risk list, promptly provide specific handling measures for each group of vessels in the high-risk groups, as a basis for localities to implement; handling measures must ensure traceability to the final results of each case. On that basis, guide, urge and inspect localities to implement handling and digitization measures, ensuring that digitized records meet requirements. For cases where all measures have been applied according to the instructions but the status of the vessel has not been retrieved, a list must be made and reported to the superiors, and at the same time, responsibility must be taken for the implementation results according to the report. The instructions must be timely for localities to implement, ensuring completion of the work before November 20, 2024; review the statistics of the number of high-risk fishing vessels, avoiding the case of 01 fishing vessel being counted multiple times (due to belonging to different high-risk groups), leading to an increase in the number of high-risk fishing vessels in the province. For high-risk fishing vessels that have been removed from the monitoring list, appropriate measures must be taken to store and manage data and figures.

Speed up the progress of registration, granting of fishing licenses, and technical safety certificates for “03 no” fishing vessels, fishing vessels with expired fishing licenses and technical safety certificates. Fishing vessel management agencies closely coordinate with local authorities, clearly assign responsibilities in implementing remedial measures for “03 no” vessels, vessels with expired fishing licenses and technical safety certificates. Results of remedial measures must be fully updated in the national fisheries database (VNFishbase) according to regulations. Instruct districts and cities to direct commune-level authorities to develop specific plans and measures to complete the handling of high-risk fishing vessel groups, ensuring completion before November 20, 2024.

Mobilize the maximum force of the industry, focus on supporting districts (especially Tran Van Thoi district) to continue to launch a peak period from now until November 20, 2024, to simultaneously deploy and complete the management of high-risk groups of vessels. Strengthen patrolling, inspection, control, and handling of “3 no” fishing vessels, fishing vessels that are not qualified to participate in illegal fishing activities, fishing vessels that have been deregistered but are still operating, etc. Share data, control fishing vessel activities entering and leaving ports, fishing vessels participating in fishing activities at sea, monitor exploited aquatic product output; handle the responsibility of the Fishing Port Management Board, IUU Office for fishing vessels violating IUU fishing entering and leaving ports, loading and unloading exploited aquatic products without verification and handling according to regulations; strictly inspect and monitor the activities of private fishing ports, ensuring that fishing vessels and fishing ports comply with regulations when loading fish and purchasing products. Continue to review and seriously implement the work of confirming and certifying the origin of exploited aquatic products on the electronic traceability system (eCDT) to ensure transparency and legality in confirming, certifying and tracing the origin of exploited aquatic products.

Propose the Provincial Steering Committee on IUU to assign inspection tasks and be in charge of localities in the fight against IUU fishing in the direction of increasing specialized forces to advise and focus forces on localities with a large number of fishing vessels, especially fishing vessels in high-risk groups. Advise the Provincial People's Committee to report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the results of investigation, verification and handling of IUU fishing acts after the 4th inspection, especially acts of disconnecting, sending, transporting VMS equipment, crossing maritime boundaries; brokerage, collusion, and violations of illegal fishing in foreign waters, before November 28, 2024.

The Provincial Border Guard Command and the Provincial Police have accelerated the investigation, verification and handling of IUU fishing activities since the fourth inspection by the EC. The focus is on brokerage, collusion and violations of illegal fishing in foreign waters. For cases being handled, it is necessary to estimate the time to complete the investigation, verification and handling steps to serve as a basis for monitoring and controlling the progress of implementation; weekly report the handling results to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for synthesis and reporting.

The Provincial Border Guard Command directed the organization to strictly control and resolutely not allow fishing vessels that do not meet the prescribed conditions to participate in fishing activities, especially “3 no” fishing vessels.

The Provincial Police support localities and guide fishing boat owners to register for level 2 electronic identification codes to submit fishing boat documents according to regulations.

The Department of Finance continues to review and prioritize funding for relevant departments, branches, localities and units to effectively implement tasks and solutions to combat IUU fishing and remove the “yellow card” warning as prescribed.

The People's Committees of districts and Ca Mau city effectively implement specific handling measures for fishing vessels in the high-risk group according to the guidance of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Focus resources, strengthen forces, support local authorities, assign specific tasks in implementing management measures for fishing vessels in the high-risk group. Prioritize propaganda, mobilization and guidance for owners of “03 no” fishing vessels, fishing vessels with expired fishing licenses and technical safety certificates to register and inspect. Coordinate mobilization, guidance and enforcement of the purchase and sale of fishing vessels in accordance with regulations. Direct and guide local authorities, functional units and individuals assigned tasks to continue to perform well the work of digitizing, monitoring and managing groups of fishing vessels at high risk of violating IUU fishing. Ensure that all digitized records meet requirements and can be traced to the final results according to regulations. Assigning grassroots officials to monitor each group of fishing vessels, each fishing vessel in the high-risk group for violating IUU fishing must continue to monitor and grasp the situation in key areas. Timely detect and prevent early and from a distance fishing vessels and fishermen intending to illegally exploit seafood in foreign waters. Directing functional units and commune-level authorities to continue to carry out well the statistics of exploited seafood output.

The Chairman of the People's Committee at the district and commune levels is responsible for completing the instructions of the functional sector in managing fishing vessels, in handling violating means, and implementing digitalization. Assigning management staff to high-risk fishing vessels to continue managing, in order to prevent illegal fishing vessels from arising in the area.