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Vietnamese blue boats

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki



Vietnamese ‘blue boats’ are small-to-medium sized wooden fishing boats painted in a characteristic bright blue color and are known for participating in IUU fishing practices in foreign territorial waters off Pacific Island Nations such as Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. There are more than 100.000 of the boats.[1] The practice is considered a part of IUU fishing, because it takes place illegally, is not regulated and the catch is not reported.[2] The boats may travel as far as Australia and New Zealand to poach or illegally catch valuable species such as sea cucumber and giant clam in waters located thousands of kilometers off of the coast of Vietnam where a majority of the blue boats sail out from. They are also referred to as ‘reef robbers’ because the blue boats drain stocks of high-value fish found near the reefs and threaten Pacific Island Nations’ food security and export income potential which is fundamental to the affected states’ economy and livelihood.[3] The intrusions made by the blue boats have alarmed states in the region causing them to put diplomatic pressure on Vietnam and call for strengthened coordination and surveillance efforts.[4][5] Since 2015, when the blue boats first made headlines, there has been a widespread call for attention and action from a wide range of actors, including the media and national and regional actors.[3]

The blue boats operations

The blue boats are small-to-medium in size measuring 10-15 meters in length and can carry 10-17 crew members onboard. They travel upwards of 7.000 kilometers from the Vietnamese coast and stay at sea for more than three months.[3] To do so, evidence suggests that the blue boats carry out their illegal operations in a network of larger boats that bring fuel and carry the caught fish ashore during the duration of the trip.[6] The blue boats seem to mainly target sea cucumber as they are considered a delicacy in many parts of East and Southeast Asia. The reasons why the Vietnamese fishers take the risk and undertake the long journey under dangerous conditions to poach fish are twofold since both economic and geopolitical factors play a role. The financial incentive lies in the fact that the blue boats are inexpensive to purchase (reportedly costing approximately AU$ 15.000-35.000 each) while sea cucumber can retail for AU$ 150-300 per kilogram in Hong Kong and Chinese markets.[3] The reason that the boats sail into foreign waters of Pacific Island Nations may be because stocks are depleting nearer to Vietnam combined with that fact that fishing in the South China Sea is becoming increasingly more problematic due to political interference from China.[7][8] From a Vietnamese perspective, this development is to be seen in line with the Vietnamese government who have developed strategies that encourage outward expansion of its fishery since the 1990’s.[9][10] Even though the Vietnamese blue boats were first making headlines in 2015, the development has been long underway. The outward expansion of Vietnamese fishery has also meant that the blue boats have sailed into the waters of countries closer to Vietnam such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The common trait is that the blue boats intentionally search for sail routes which are not patrolled where they can search for high-value species in uninhabited areas while avoiding detection. Another factor which has pushed the blue boats away from waters closer to Vietnam is that the species which are being poached are easier and less dangerous to fish in foreign waters. For instance, sea cucumbers are found 6-7 meters deep in foreign waters as opposed to the 60-80 meters fishers must dive to catch them in the South China Sea located closer to Vietnam.[3]

The Vietnamese blue boats' crew

The illegal fishing carried out by blue boats has been compared to drug trafficking in the sense that the fishers are willing to risk detection and severe punishment due to the large potential for profit. The Vietnamese fishers take large risks and face significant dangers when they partake in IUU fishing which is vulnerable to accidents without employment contracts or insurance.[3] Even though this type of IUU fishing practice is not always linked in human trafficking it is commonly tied to labor concerns, because the boat’s crew often have debt limiting their freedom and work under harsh conditions at sea.[11] When the boats are caught outside Vietnamese waters the boat owners, captains and workers face significant challenges. Therefore, scholars have called for policies designed to curb IUU fishing to specifically address working conditions, since the policies otherwise risk unintentionally causing the workers onboard the boats problems, as they are affected by legislation and regulation from several states at once.[12]

Maritime security issues

The Vietnamese blue boats are a problem for several reasons seen from a maritime security perspective. The theoretical term does not have a fixed definition but broadly encompasses dimensions of harm related to four themes: marine environment, economic development, human security and national security to describe varying issues occurring at sea. See maritime security for a thorough review of the concept. Traditionally associated with military power and violations of sovereign territory, today it describes a much broader field of maritime challenges tied to security.[2] The IUU fishing practices tied to the Vietnamese blue boats illustrate the increasing overlap between different maritime security threats. According to scholars, the Vietnamese blue boat phenomenon should be seen as new kind of security threat, because the practice compromises the Pacific Island Nations’ food security and economy opportunity.[3] For the Pacific Island Nations, maritime security discussions often come up in relation to fishery and fishing vessels.[13] Therefore, the aspects related to marine environment and economic impact are a priority for the Pacific Island Nations above issues related to national security. This stands in opposition to the much stronger reactions tied to national security concerns from the larger neighboring countries of Australia and New Zealand.[14] This could also means that the Vietnamese perceived it to be less problematic for the blue boats to illegally catch fish in waters off the Pacific Island Nations, because the geographically nearer waters of the South China Sea have larger potential to draw military or grey zone conflict with China over fishing rights and other territorial disputes.

The marine environment is threatened by the IUU fishing committed by the blue boats, because high-value fish stocks are overfished causing environmental degradation.[3] One reason why the blue boats make the long trip to the Pacific Island Nations may be because the fish stocks already are depleted in waters closer to Vietnam.[9] Simultaneously, the negative consequences of the overfishings of fish stocks have a significant impact on millions of people who depend on marine resources to sustain their way of life.[2] This way of approaching the issue follows a ‘scarcity mindset’ where the intrusion of the Vietnamese boats into waters of Pacific Island Nations is driven by overfishing and scarcity of resources in national waters.[3][9] This aspect of the issue highlights that poaching takes resources away from locals and thereby puts local needs under pressure. Another aspect is that the species being poached already are subject to national fishing bans and international protection.[15] This makes the practice more problematic, since it is protected species being caught illegally. The health of the marine environment is particularly important for the Pacific Island Nations, because those resources provide food and income to sustain life on the islands.[3] Vietnamese blue boats depleting fish stocks has a significant economic impact for the Pacific Island Nations, because it takes away a valuable source of national export revenue.[16][17][18][19] This destabilizes or entirely risks the Pacific Island Nations’ ability to partake in the blue economy which is vital to sustaining their future.[20] A concrete example of this is that one of the commonly illegally poached species such as sea cucumber is considered the second-most valuable fish to export to Pacific Island Nations. From the Vietnamese perspective, there is an incentive to poach sea cucumber in foreign waters, because it is easier and less dangerous to do than in waters closer to Vietnam.[3] The human security element is also encompassed when blue boats poach maritime resources, because a loss of culturally important and economically valuable maritime resources puts costal populations in a vulnerable position.[21] There are not only impacts for Pacific islanders, because the way IUU fishing takes place also compromises the welfare of fish workers onboard the boats which is also encompassed with the human security dimension. The national security aspect is also a matter of great importance to the Pacific Island Nations whose sovereign territory the blue boats are trespassing. Furthermore, the Pacific Island Nations face a challenging task when it comes to patrol and surveillance, because doing so adequately requires a large number of resources due to the large area of ocean surrounding the islands.[3] The task is made further challenging by the fact that the blue boats used are difficult to detect due to their size and the lack of technological equipment on board means that they do not show up on radars.[5] This highlights an issue of transparency which characterizes the practices tied to IUU fishing broadly speaking. Another transparency issue relates to the flag state, because the blue boats are unlicensed and therefore do not officially belong to any flag state.[5][22] This further complicates the task of giving appropriate repercussions.

Responses and administrative-financial burdens

The Vietnamese blue boats compromise the Pacific Island Nations’ food security and economic opportunity.[1] But a third impact of the boats crossing maritime borders is the aspect of regulation, because the incidents inflict large financial and administrative burdens on the Pacific Island Nations whose territory the blue boats trepass through. The tasks related to securing the maritime borders includes monitoring, capture, disposal of the boats a well as prosecution, detainment and return of the crew onboard the boats. The Pacific Island Nations have a hard time countering the illegal fishing due to a lack of resources to secure a large area of ocean space.[3] As a result, performing these duties amounts to large sums of money which the Pacific Island Nations’ governments take on without possibility of reimbursement.[5][22] Significant collective action and strong rhetoric against Vietnam have been taken to prevent Vietnamese blue boats and IUU fishing taking place in the region more broadly.[3] As a part of this, the Pacific Island Nations have put diplomatic pressure on Vietnam to stop the illegal activity from their side.[4] Pacific Island Nations have increased their surveillance and patrolling efforts which has led to interception of the boats.[3] Some of the boats have been apprehended and stronger action includes destroying the boats by seizing and burning them to stop others from doing the same.[23] But the problem is difficult to curb, because many of the Vietnamese fishers find that the reward outweighs the risk.[3] Returning to the issue of the flag state, there is also a regulation problem here, because the Vietnamese blue boats fish unlicensed and thus do not belong to any flag state making it the task of the countries violated by the boats to decide on appropriate measures.[5] This collection of issues has caused the Pacific Island Nations to call on Vietnam to undertake its flag obligations.[22]

The EU yellow card

Vietnamese authorities have pledged to tackle the issue and in recent years, Vietnam has made efforts to reduce IUU fishing leading to a decline in boat activity. This course of action has been motivated by the European Commission’s yellow card warning issued in 2017 which stated the Vietnamese illegal fishing in foreign water throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands as a prominent issue which Vietnam was not taking sufficient action to tackle. Vietnam did not have a system in place to tackle IUU fishing and trace the blue boats, because the implementation of policy directives introduced by the Vietnamese government throughout the 2010’s had been limited.[10] Since that time, Vietnam has taken regulatory action to uphold its reputation and continue its role as a major seafood producer.[12] The situation for the Vietnamese fishers was made more complex, because fishers simultaneously were encouraged by the Vietnamese government to continue their fishing activities to assert Vietnamese sovereignty in the South China Sea.[10]

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)

The issues regarding the Vietnamese blue boats have also been raised several times at the annual Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission where Vietnam is a cooperating non-member.[3][24] The WCPFC is a regional fisheries management organization established to conserve and manage migratory fish stocks in the Pacific Ocean. The Commission has been urged to address the issue in a collective manner, because impacts are felt across the region.[22][4] In 2017, the Vietnamese delegate to the WCPFC was confronted directly and asked to provide a response to how Vietnam was going to do more to prevent the blue boats and IUU fishing in the future.[3] It was also restated that the Vietnamese blue boats are not welcome in the region. There has also been implications that the continued poaching by Vietnamese blue boats could influence the success of Vietnam’s application to become a member of the WCPFC.[22]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Pacific countries workshop focus on illegal Vietnamese Blue Boat threat | FFA's TunaPacific: Fisheries news and views". tunapacific.ffa.int. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bueger, Christian; Edmunds, Timothy (2024). "Blue Crime: Pirates, Smugglers, and Ecocriminals". Understanding maritime security. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 86–118. ISBN 978-0-19-776714-6. Search this book on
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Song, Andrew M.; Hoang, Viet Thang; Cohen, Philippa J.; Aqorau, Transform; Morrison, Tiffany H. (2019). "'Blue boats' and 'reef robbers': A new maritime security threat for the Asia Pacific?". Asia Pacific Viewpoint. 60 (3): 310–324. doi:10.1111/apv.12240. ISSN 1360-7456.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "PNA members voice concerns over fishing management | www.pnatuna.com". www.pnatuna.com. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Vietnam must do more on its blue boats in Pacific | FFA's TunaPacific: Fisheries news and views". tunapacific.ffa.int. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  6. ↑ Blaha, F. (2017). "Illegal fishing in the central and South Pacific" (PDF). The Pacific Community.
  7. ↑ Kim, Tongfi; Liss, Carolin (2024-03-28), "Pirates, Illegal Fishing, and Other Illicit Activities in the South China Sea", Security Dynamics in the South China Sea (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 127–145, doi:10.4324/9781032657493-9, ISBN 978-1-032-65749-3, retrieved 2025-12-23
  8. ↑ Bueger, Christian; Edmunds, Timothy (2024). "Interstate Conflicts, Terrorism, and Grey Zones". Understanding maritime security. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 60–85. ISBN 978-0-19-776714-6. Search this book on
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Pomeroy, Robert; Thi Nguyen, Kim Anh; Thong, Ha Xuan (2009-03-01). "Small-scale marine fisheries policy in Vietnam". Marine Policy. 33 (2): 419–428. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2008.10.001. ISSN 0308-597X.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Kadfak, Alin; Marschke, Melissa; Hanh, Tong Thi Hai (2025-02-17). "From extraction to surveillance: Re-territorialisation of Vietnam's ocean frontier through fisheries reforms". Maritime Studies. 24 (1): 16. doi:10.1007/s40152-025-00408-1. ISSN 2212-9790.
  11. ↑ "Caught in the net: Illegal fishing and child labour in Vietnam's…". Environmental Justice Foundation. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Alonso, Georgina; Marschke, Melissa (2023-04-04). "Blue boats in deep waters: how aspects of IUU policy impact Vietnamese fish workers". Maritime Studies. 22 (2): 14. doi:10.1007/s40152-023-00303-7. ISSN 2212-9790. PMC 10072036 Check |pmc= value (help). PMID 37035260 Check |pmid= value (help).
  13. ↑ Martin, T. (2005) Report on foreign fishing vessel security issues in the Pacific Islands region. Regional Maritime Pro gramme. Noumea: Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
  14. ↑ Firth, Stewart (2003). "Conceptualizing Security in Oceania: New and Enduring Issues" (PDF). Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies: 41–52.
  15. ↑ Anderson, Sean C; Flemming, Joanna Mills; Watson, Reg; Lotze, Heike K (2011). "Serial exploitation of global sea cucumber fisheries: Serial exploitation of sea cucumbers". Fish and Fisheries. 12 (3): 317–339. doi:10.1111/j.1467-2979.2010.00397.x.
  16. ↑ Gillett, R. D. (2009). Fisheries in the economies of the Pacific Island countries and territories. Pacific studies series. Asian Development Bank. Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank. ISBN 978-971-561-708-6. Search this book on
  17. ↑ Klein, Natalie (2009-10-16). Maritime Security: International Law and Policy Perspectives from Australia and New Zealand (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203867471. ISBN 978-0-203-86747-1. Search this book on
  18. ↑ Barnett, Jonathon (2017). "The dilemmas of normalising losses from climate change: Towards hope for Pacific atoll countries". Asia Pacific Viewpoint. 58 (1): 3–13. doi:10.1111/apv.12153. ISSN 1360-7456.
  19. ↑ Voyer, Michelle; Schofield, Clive; Azmi, Kamal; Warner, Robin; McIlgorm, Alistair; Quirk, Genevieve (2018-01-02). "Maritime security and the Blue Economy: intersections and interdependencies in the Indian Ocean". Journal of the Indian Ocean Region. 14 (1): 28–48. doi:10.1080/19480881.2018.1418155. ISSN 1948-0881.
  20. ↑ Duarte, Érico (2016-01-02). "Brazil, the Blue Economy and the maritime security of the South Atlantic". Journal of the Indian Ocean Region. 12 (1): 97–111. doi:10.1080/19480881.2015.1067384. ISSN 1948-0881.
  21. ↑ Bueger, Christian (2015). "What is maritime security?". Marine Policy. 53: 159–164. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2014.12.005.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 "Vietnam asked to step up efforts to stop marauding blue boats | FFA's TunaPacific: Fisheries news and views". tunapacific.ffa.int. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  23. ↑ Carreon, By Bernadette H. (2017-01-05). "The blue threat: Vietnamese poachers are rocking the boat in the Pacific". pactimes. Retrieved 2025-12-23.
  24. ↑ "Illegal fishing by 'blue boats' criticized by PNA member at Tuna Commission | www.pnatuna.com". www.pnatuna.com. Retrieved 2025-12-23.

Category:Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Category:Poaching Category:Vietnam Category:Sea cucumbers as food


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