Collaborating with our Southeast Asian colleagues in fisheries compliance
Four staff from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) returned to Vietnam in October 2024 to help train Southeast Asian fisheries officers to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing more effectively.
From 14 October to 1 November 2024, a group of 35 fisheries officers from around the region attended the second half of a six-week training course in fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS).
Following on from the first session in May 2024, the second block of the Fisheries MCS in Southeast Asia course focused on:
- the roles of fisheries inspectors the role of data in MCS activities
- evidence collection
- vessel boarding and inspection, and
- prosecuting fisheries offences.
The training also provided an opportunity for participants from across the region to enhance their professional network, which will further strengthen regional MCS capacity to combat IUU fishing.
Now in its second year, the MCS training course is jointly designed and delivered by AFMA, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Nha Trang University.
The full curriculum covers theoretical and practical elements of fisheries MCS, including:
- the importance of sustainably managed fisheries in Southeast Asia
- MCS legal and regulatory frameworks
- social inclusion and gender diversity in fisheries MCS
- compliance theory and behaviours
- vessel monitoring and surveillance tools
- MCS data analysis
- powers, roles and functions of fisheries officers
- workplace occupational health and safety
- the importance of regional cooperation to address IUU fishing
- MCS operational activities, and
- community engagement in MCS.
AFMA delivers the training in collaboration with:
- Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
- International MCS Network
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries
- National Fisheries Authority of Papua New Guinea
- Thailand Department of Fisheries
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Starboard Maritime Intelligence
- Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
- Regional Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing (RPOA-IUU).
The 2024 cohort of participants were from a range of RPOA-IUU member countries including Cambodia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Australia contributes to the training as part of the Combating IUU Fishing and Promoting Sustainable Fisheries in Southeast Asia Program managed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.