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The Capture Fisheries and Fisheries Resource Protection Department DECAFIREP of the Ministry of Fisheries and its branches in the provinces are charged with controlling all fishing activities. Every
provincial DECAFIREP has patrol boats and staff to control fishing activities within the provincial coastal waters. Responsibility for compliance is shared with the Border army force.
7.2 Fisheries management policy
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The Government of Vietnam, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MARD, has set as a cornerstone of its policy, that scientific management and decision making will be
precondition for sustainable management practices and the strengthening of the development process. The Government of Vietnam signed anMoU with the Marine Stewardship Council in 2005, renewed
in 2008, proposing to make its fisheries sustainable.
7.2.1 Overall strategies
The overall development objectives of the Government for the fisheries sector are:
•
To increase employment opportunities, income and living standard of fishing and aquaculture communities social objectives, cohesion.
•
To increase the contribution of fisheries to national economic and social development, including social stability and national security growth, stability and security.
•
To improve nutritional standards of the people by increasing the supply of fish and aquatic products for domestic consumption health.
•
To increase exports and foreign exchange earnings by increasing supplies to export and by improving the value added and the processing of fishery products balance of payment,
growth, international competition.
•
To strengthen the sustainable development of fisheries through improved management of fishery resources and habitats protection of resource base, monitoring and control.
It is noteworthy from discussions held with DARD, the focus was on the first bullet point, and the sustainability of resources was rather secondary.
7.2.2 Specific objectives
The specific objectives for capture fisheries are:
•
To increase fish production from offshore sources.
•
To maintain the current levels of fish production from coastal sources while seeking to increase quality and value.
•
To increase or sustain production from brackish water capture fisheries. Some relevant comments as to the effectiveness of governance have been extracted from the FSPS
report 2009.
Government agencies have insufficient human and financial resources to provide the required data collection, management, monitoring, surveillance or enforcement of Vietnam’s inshore or
offshore waters. The investigation and assessment of aquatic resources is done annually, but with low efficiency
due to improper methods and limited budgets. At present, the surveyed data and statistics are not reliable enough to provide a theoretical foundation for the government to manage and protect the
aquatic resources.
Despite the enactment of the 2003 Fisheries Law, effective management and control over the sector remains difficult.
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This section is based on http:www.fao.orgfifcpenVnmbody.htm
1999.
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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
