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| An offshore fishing vessel in Vietnam's maritime zone__Photo: VNA |
The Government on April 5 decreed to impose harsher penalties for fisheries-related violations, especially repeated ones, in an attempt to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities.
Under Decree 38/2024/ND-CP, a fine of up to VND 1 billion will be imposed on owners of fishing vessels operating in waters of foreign countries, territories or waters under the jurisdiction of regional fisheries management organizations without a permit or approval or with the expired permit or approval.
Such a fine will also be imposed for acts of using unflagged or foreign-flagged vessels from non-member states for illegal fishing in waters under the jurisdiction of regional fisheries management organizations; or using vessels for fishing in contravention of regulations on exploitation and protection of fisheries resources in international waters not under the jurisdiction of regional fisheries management organizations.
Meanwhile, those using fishing vessels of a length measuring between 15 and 24 meters for fisheries activities in maritime zones without valid fishing permits or with expired ones; failing to maintain the transmission of information from on-board vessel monitoring systems to centralized vessel monitoring systems; disabling an on-board vessel monitoring system or failing to install a vessel monitoring system on fishing vessels of a length of 24 meters or more will face a fine of VND 300-500 million.
Such a fine will be increased to VND 500-700 million if illegal actions are repeated or have been subject to administrative sanctioning for several times.
The above penalties apply to individual violators and may be doubled for institutional violators.
The people’s public security forces will be responsible for making written records of and sanctioning administrative violations in the field of fisheries. They may also deprive the right to use licenses and practice certificates for a definite time or suspend operations of, and confiscate material evidences and means involved in the commission of administrative violations and apply remedial measures against, violators.- (VLLF)
