Technology solutions to help control seafood exploitation

Gia Lai strengthens supervision of fishing vessels

Tighten management and strictly handle cases of illegal seafood exploitation starting from strengthening technology monitoring, handling violations and data cleaning.

In Gia Lai, a major bottleneck in management is the group of fishing vessels that do not meet operating conditions - subjects at high risk of IUU violations. Through review, the whole province has 186 vessels in this category, of which 26 vessels are registering for classification and 160 vessels have not been registered. Faced with the reality that management is still manual, heavily dependent on the report of ship owners, the Provincial People's Committee has agreed on the policy of hiring monitoring equipment (TBGS) services to strictly control this group of vessels.

The technology solution is expected to overcome existing limitations such as the lack of a separate monitoring system, not updating the ship's status in time, and no early warning mechanism. When deployed, TBGS will help accurately determine the location of fishing vessels, monitor the anchoring status inside and outside the province, and promptly detect abnormal signs such as arbitrary departure from ports, equipment sabotage, or power outages.

Local authorities are responsible for working weekly with ship owners who do not meet the conditions, requesting to bring the ship ashore, not to leave fishing gear on the ship and absolutely not to go to sea. The allocation of budget to communes to proactively hire TBGS services is considered a flexible solution, suitable to the actual conditions of each locality.

Da Nang, Quang Ngai strictly handle violations

Meanwhile, in Da Nang, the prominent issue lies in the transparency of the exploitation records. Through inspection of 1,347 dossiers confirming seafood raw materials, functional agencies discovered 238 exploitation logs with many abnormalities in output, fishing grounds and time. Notably, the writing in the logs is also inconsistent, raising suspicions of forging documents.

These signs of fraud were immediately prosecuted by the Investigation Agency against 3 officials of the Da Nang Fishing Port and Boat Management Board for the act of forging documents of agencies and organizations. The case not only shows loopholes in the stage of confirming the origin of seafood but also raises an urgent requirement to tighten discipline and order in the law enforcement team.

Da Nang currently has more than 4,000 fishing vessels updated to the national data system, most of which have been licensed and equipped with monitoring equipment. However, hundreds of vessels are still recorded losing connection or exceeding the permitted limits, showing that technology monitoring needs to be combined with on-site inspection and strict handling. The city is promoting digital transformation in fisheries management, deploying electronic logbooks and traceability systems to replace paper records, ensuring transparency and traceability of seafood.

In Quang Ngai, the work of combating IUU has recorded positive changes, but still contains many risks due to the large number of ships operating outside the province. To date, 100% of fishing vessels have been registered and updated with data, but there are still 81 vessels that do not meet the licensing conditions. Functional forces have detected and handled many violations, including acts of exceeding exploitation boundaries, with a total fine amount of up to 500 million VND.

Mr. Do Tam Hien - Vice Chairman of Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee - requested localities to consolidate the Steering Committee for combating IUU fishing at the commune level. The Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinates to organize training and professional transfer, especially on new contents. The province strictly manages groups of high-risk fishing vessels violating IUU, resolutely does not allow unqualified vessels to leave port and strictly handles violations.

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