Authorities Ca Mau Province, the southern tip of Vietnam, have levied a US$37,000 fine on a local fisher who committed an illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing act in Thai waters, about a month before a European Committee (EC) team expectedly arrives in Vietnam for its fifth IUU inspection.  

The boat owner, T.L.V., was fined VND917.5 million ($37,400) for encroaching into the waters of Thailand for illegal fishing and for using a vessel less than 15 meters in length in high seas, the Ca Mau administration announced on Tuesday.  

On November 30, 2023, when V.’s fishing boat CM 06051-TS was operating in the Ca Mau waters, he assigned another fisherman on board to act as the vessel’s captain and he then left his boat to go ashore. 

A fortnight later, the captain phoned V. reporting the disappointing fishing outcomes and requesting permission to engage in illegal fishing within Thai waters, which was granted by the boat owner.

The vessel was subsequently inspected and seized during a joint patrol operation conducted by a unit of Vietnam’s Naval Region 2 and its counterpart from the Royal Thai Navy.

The Thai naval unit detained the vessel and its crew of six including the captain pending a trial in Thailand for violating the IUU fishing act.  

V. admitted to Vietnamese investigators in Ca Mau that he had managed all activities of the fishing boat and had directed the vessel to go to Thai waters for Illicit fishing.

V. also breached a Vietnamese regulation that bans fishing boats with a length of less than 15 meters from operating in high seas.

The sanction on V. came about a month before an EC team expectedly arrives in Vietnam in April for the fifth IUU inspection since the EC imposed an IUU fishing ‘yellow card’ warning on Vietnamese seafood in 2017.

The EC has sent its teams to Vietnam four times since that year for inspections, with the latest taking place in October 2023.

But the warning has yet to be removed due to limitations of some localities in compliance with relevant EC requirements.

In a related development, the People’s Court of southern Kien Giang Province in late January gave jail terms ranging from one to eight years in prison to four fishermen for unlawfully leaving the country to engage in IUU fishing activities in Malaysian waters.  

On February 5, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang directed relevant agencies and authorities in coastal regions to implement more rigorous measures against IUU fishing so that the seven-year ‘yellow card’ can be lifted following the fifth inspection.

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