Promoting legal propaganda and dissemination for fishermen is one of the measures taken by our Party, people and Military in a bid to remove the "yellow card" of the European Commission for seafood exported by our country. This is also a key task that has been paid with much attention and implemented with synchronous, practical and effective solutions by Binh Dinh Border Guard.

With a coastline of over 134 km, Binh Dinh has 33 communes, wards and towns (belonging to 03 districts, 01 town and 01 city) located in the maritime border areas. Roughly one fourth of its population are living on fishing and aquaculture. According to statistics, at present the province has over 5,700 fishing boats operating on fishing grounds from Quang Ninh to Kien Giang province, mainly in the middle and southern areas of the East Sea. As the core force, the Provincial Border Guard has always paid attention and thoroughly conducted legal propaganda and dissemination to people in the maritime border areas, especially when the whole country in general and Binh Dinh province in particular are striving to remove the "yellow card" of the European Commission for Vietnamese seafood. As a result, legal awareness and sense of law observance of fishermen have been raised; legal breaches during fishing at sea, and illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing activities have decreased significantly; fishermen feel at ease during their operations at sea, and stand side by side with the Border Guard and other forces in the protection of the country's sovereignty over the sacred sea and islands.

That result is attributed to the Provincial Border Guard’s concentrated and unified leadership, flexible and specific direction in the implementation of this work. Party committees and commanders of agencies and units set forth relevant guidelines and measures to lead and direct the implementation of this work in a serious manner, and proactively elaborate regulations, and sign cooperation programmes with local Party committees, authorities and mass organisations; actively research, coordinate with agencies, units and localities to issue many unified guiding documents; involve forces, levels, branches and the whole political system for the task of legal propaganda and dissemination to officials and people in maritime border areas. At the same time, it directs Border Guard agencies and posts to promote their roles and responsibilities in coordinating with departments, agencies and mass organisations of communes and wards to advise and assist the People's Committees of coastal districts, towns and cities to lead and direct the implementation of this task. Regularly hold review and summary to evaluate the implementation in each locality and unit, thereby promptly drawing lessons from experience and proposing appropriate and realistic measures for improving the effectiveness of legal propaganda and dissemination for fishermen.

Actively innovating the content and form of legal propaganda and dissemination is identified as a measure for improving legal knowledge of fishermen. On grasping the needs of each type of targeted object, agencies and units actively develop content, determine appropriate and effective forms and methods of propaganda. The content of propaganda is made in a way that both include all the guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State on sea, islands and related fields, and make fishermen deeply understand the main and key contents, especially the legal regulations for fishing in our country and other maritime countries in the region; safety regulations while operating and when in trouble at sea; IUU fishing, so that they raise their sense of responsibility in removing the "yellow card" of the European Commission for the country’s seafood.

Troops of Cat Khanh Border Guard Post coordinate with functional forces in disseminating regulations against IUU fishing to fishermen

To make this work develop robustly, the Provincial Border Guard Command actively cooperates with agencies, mass organisations, and Fatherland Fronts of localities to make and distribute thousands of leaflets on "Regulations related to fisheries", "Regulations on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of fisheries", "Regulations on the management of human and vehicle in the maritime border areas", book on "Decree No. 96/2020/ND-CP, dated August 24, 2020 of the Government on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of national border management and protection”.

Along with that, it also coordinates and issues timely propaganda documents for the websites of the province’s departments, branches and People's Committees of coastal districts, towns, cities, radio systems at the grassroots level; regularly and effectively maintains the column of "For the sovereignty and security of sea, island, and border" on Binh Dinh Radio and Television every month; has news, articles, photos and reportage posted on mass media to propagate to cadres, soldiers and people. The staff engaged in mass mobilisation regularly comes to each house and boat to distribute leaflets, handbooks and propaganda materials. They directly exchange, guide and provide legal assistance to help fishermen and boat owners see the pros and cons in removing the "yellow card" of the European Commission on Vietnam's seafood so that they voluntarily comply with legal regulations during their operations at sea; persuade owners and captains of fishing boats not to exploit seafood in foreign waters illegally.

The Provincial Border Guard proactively advises the local Party committees and authorities to regularly and effectively maintain legal consultation and assistance for fishermen. Currently, there have established legal consulting clubs in most communes, wards and towns in the coastal border areas of the province, meeting the people's demand for legal advice and  assistance. Border guard agencies and units have actively coordinated with local authorities and mass organisations to effectively maintain "Legal Day"; regularly consolidated, managed and effectively exploited the legal bookcases according to Decision No. 14/2019/QD-TTg dated March 13, 2019 of the Prime Minister on construction, management and exploitation of legal bookcases. It has timely supplemented legal books, especially newly promulgated and revised laws, meeting needs for research and inquiry of officials, soldiers and people in the area.

In the joint effort of the whole province to thoroughly combat IUU fishing, along with propaganda and dissemination of legal regulations for fishermen, the Provincial Border Guard has strengthened its leadership and direction of the strict implementation of the legal provisions on fisheries, documents and directives of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of National Defence, the Border Guard Command on combating IUU fishing; promptly advised the IUU Steering Committees of coastal provinces and localities to synchronously implement measures to prevent, and gradually curb the illegal fishing activities of the province's fishing boats in foreign waters; promulgated plans, official dispatches and instructions on patrolling, controlling and inspecting people and vessels operating at sea, and dispatches on strengthening inspection, control, and combat against IUU fishing.

As one of the provinces with a large number of offshore fishing boats, in order to effectively combat IUU fishing, the Provincial Border Guard focuses on synchronously implementing measures to enhance the management of the fleets and the operation of each fishing vessel; closely coordinates with relevant forces in tracing, monitoring and grasping the activities of fishing vessels, promptly preventing IUU fishing activities; regularly reviews and makes record of fishing vessels that do not return to their registered areas in order to have measures for management; directs border guard stations to strengthen the management of people and fishing vessels before leaving and entering berths and even when operating at sea to make sure that 100% of fishing vessels with 12 metres of length and above are checked, controlled and have full technical safety equipment as prescribed before departure. All fishing vessels with 06 metres of length and above are put into management with full list and updated information, especially those at high risk of IUU fishing, such as: ships that have been sold outside the province but have yet to be renamed; ships owned by non-locals; and ships operating in the southern provinces for a long time and have yet to come back to the locality. At the same time, it strengthens patrol and control at seas, especially in overlapping ones to promptly detect, warn, prevent and strictly handle the violations.

With the motto of "small rain lays great dust", the perseverance and efforts of the Provincial Border Guard officers and soldiers in legal propaganda and dissemination, and combat against IUU fishing, there have been positive changes in the awareness of fishermen in protecting and sustainably exploiting aquatic resources and actively participating in the protection of the country’s sovereignty of the sacred seas and islands.

Senior Colonel LUONG NGOC CHINH, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command