Management measures in use

Moody Marine Ltd Page 22  Overcapitalization increased fishing effortnumber of vessels and fleet horsepower combined with decreased catch per unit effort is a common feature for coastal, inshore and shallow water fisheries. This is aggravated by the fact that there are no regulations and insufficient enforcement to exclude bigger vessels from shallow-water fishing grounds devastating the marine environment with their large trawl nets.  The inshore fisheries are considered by fishers and the government to be over-exploited, causing hardship for many coastal communities. Intervention is required to improve management and performance with regard to productivity and biodiversity conservation, and to find alternative livelihoods for those unable to make a living from fishing.  Vietnam suffers from illegal, unreported and unregulated IUU fishing. In addition to the largely unreported and unregulated activities of its own vessels, large foreign vessels 25 m in length and 200 hp engine are known to fish illegally in Vietnamese waters, active offshore at day time and near shore at night time. Estimated catch of these foreign illegal vessels is thought to be at least 100,000 tonnesyear.  Increasing population pressure and the development of more effective andor destructive fishing gears has resulted in inshore resources becoming over-exploited or destroyed. In this situation, almost the only option for improved resource management is co-management, the sharing of responsibility for resources management between local communities and government agencies.  The 2003 fisheries law provides the potential for this under Clause 9, providing the basis for provinces to develop co-management systems with local communities. Some provinces have already started on such developments, e.g. island Marine Protected Areas involving co- management at Cu Lao Cham, Hon Mun and Con Dao and mainland inshore waters e.g. Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan and Yen Bai provinces.

7.3 Management measures in use

The legal and institutional framework is in place for implementing a fisheries management system. DARD has administrative responsibility for fisheries from the shoreline to 24 nautical miles. The institutional components within DARD include licensing, enforcement and research. DARD reports at Provincial level to the Provincial Peoples Committee, but also has direct links to the parallel District People’s Committee. Protection of the fisheries resource base through physical regulations, fisheries demarcation zones and MPA are the available for fisheries management, but there is no restrictive entry licensing. The core regulation for blue swimming crab is a national regulation on the minimum landing size of 100 mm. A 15 margin of tolerance is permitted. Fisheries demarcation zones are: • No fishing inside 2 miles • 2-6 n.miles: boats no greater than 20 hp • 6-24 n.miles boats of 20-90 hp • 24 nm: boats 90 hp Trawling is allowed within the constraints of the above., but is forbidden within the 6n.miles. There are two Protected Areas as swimming crab spawning grounds within the Phu Quoc MPA. These are at 104 o 05’E, 10 o 15’N and 104 o 03’E, 10 o 10’N. Penalty systems are in place with fines US5-US 1,000 commensurate with the economic gain from committing the offence. A facility is in place to revoke licences after three offences but seldom applied. Moody Marine Ltd Page 23 Management decisions are made on the advice of DARD to the Provincial Peoples Committee. The Committee consults through its District structure to commune level. DARD advice is usually upheld. The taxation includes: turnover tax, where fisheries are charged a rate of 2 on the value of the annual landing; and profit tax applicable to all corporations. Registration Transfer Tax is applicable to all new fishing boats at the time of registration, followed by an annual licensing tax. In addition to these tax schemes a series of fees is in place. Each participating boat is required to hold a fishing boat licence, with a small fee US 2.5 payable to cover administration costs.

7.4 Fisheries Regulations