VINATUNA was invited to attend the training together with the Aqua Exploiting and Protection Department, Department of Environment Police, Department of Customs, non-governmental organizations, research institution, representatives of CITES agencies in Vietnam and international experts on Shark conservation.

At the workshop, leader of the Aqua Exploiting and Protection Department emphasized the importance of preserving endangerous marine mammals and complying with CITES. He said that Vietnam has been the date of revision and establishment of regulations for the conservation of CITES species. Day by day, government is improving the capacity of functional agencies on a daily basis for inspection, control and management.

Regarding the content of the trainning workshop, delegates listened to the draft National Plan of Action for the conservation of Shark species from the Aqua Exploiting and Protection Department, Vietnam CITES Management Agency updated the latest regulations on trade in sharks of the CITES appendix, information about shark trade data between Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Through that, VINATUNA also had an opportunity to make suggestions for the draft on “NATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION ON SHARK AND RAY SPECIES CONSERVATION IN VIETNAM PERIOD 2020-2025”. There are some suggestions on methods and tools to collect data on endangerous, threated marine animals to solve the biggest problem on lacking of data.

In addition, delegates were also done the practice of indentify sharks from dry fins in order to improve their ability to identify sharks in the CITES ban appendix.

During practicing time, delegates were guided and pointed out some notices during the inspection by American expert Debra Lynn Abercrombie. The training was held in an extremely open, friendly atmosphere among the parties.

                                                                                                                  VINATUNA