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Abstract
This study conducted face-to-face interviews with 166 skippers and owners regarding their awareness of and compliance with regulations related to the protection of aquatic resources. Additionally, the mesh sizes of 60 fishing gears operating in offshore waters of the Gulf of Tonkin were surveyed. The investigation and survey were carried out from November 2025 to April 2026 when the vessels docked at three fishing ports in Nghe An province. The results indicated that most vessel owners and skippers had a good grasp of and strictly complied with the regulations. Specifically, 100% of the fishing vessels were equipped with and operated vessel monitoring systems (VMS); 93.4% of the vessels complied well with regulations on fishing zones; 98.2% did not violate regulations regarding temporarily closed fishing areas; and 100% of the vessels did not violate regulations on aquatic resource protection areas. However, 63.3% of the vessel owners and skippers had not yet properly implemented the regulations concerning the minimum allowable mesh size for offshore fishing operations.
Keywords: fishery resources, mesh sizes, stick-held falling net fisheries, vessel monitoring system, Nghe An province