The Ca Mau Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked owners of the 10 boats including seven from Ca Mau Province and three from neighbouring Kien Giang Province to recall their boats within 10 days for an investigation into the removal of their VMS while fishing at sea.
"Local naval and military forces have also been asked to look for the boats and ensure they return to shore," the ministry said, adding that fishing boats with lengths of 15 metres or more operating without VMS was a serious violation.
Earlier on March 15, local authorities checked a fishing boat operated by captain Tran Phuoc Nghiem and found 10 sets of vessel monitoring systems hidden inside. Nghiem said that he was asked to keep the VMS devices for some other boats and received fuel in return. Nghiem was given between 30-60 litres of diesel for keeping each set of the VMS.
Installing VMS equipment on fishing boats with a length of 15m or more is one of the main solutions to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, particularly illegal fishing in foreign waters.
Towards the goal of having the European Commission's yellow card on IUU removed, the Vietnamese Directorate of Fisheries has urged the administrations of coastal localities to speed up the installation of VMS equipment and effectively use the equipment to monitor the operation of their fishing fleets at sea closely.
As of June 30, 2022, some 93.40 percent of fishing boats nationwide had been installed with VMS.
