1. Organizations and individuals using commercial fishing vessels with the maximum length of at least 6 meters for engaging in fishing shall have commercial fishing licenses.
2. The organization or individual prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article will be issued with the commercial fishing license if: a) The marine fishing does not exceed the quota on issuance of marine fishing licenses; b) The commercial fishing is not included in the list of banned vocations; c) The commercial fishing vessel requiring inspection is issued with the certificate of technical safety; d) The commercial fishing vessel is provided with communication equipment as prescribed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; dd) The commercial fishing vessel with the maximum length of at least 15 meters is equipped with the vehicle tracking device in accordance with the Government's regulations; e) The organization or individual has obtained the registration certificate of commercial fishing vessels; g) The master and chief engineer officer have degrees or certificates precribed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; h) In case of reissuance of the expired license, the organization or individual satisfy the requirements prescribed in Points b, c, d, dd, e and g of this Clause and have submitted extraction log in accordance with regulations of law and the commercial fishing vessel is not included in the list of illegal commercial fishing vessels published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
3. Main contents of the commercial fishing license include: a) Name of the organization or individual; b) Registration number, name and call sign of the commercial fishing vessel and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) number (if any); c) Fishing vocations and areas; d) Fishing period of each vocation; dd) The production allowed to be caught of each species (if any); e) The registered fishing port; g) Expiry date
4. A commercial fishing license will be reissued if: a) It is lost or damaged; or b) The license holder’s information specified in the license or the registered fishing port is changed; c) The license expires.
5. A commercial fishing license will be revoked if: a) Its contents are erased or changed; b) Aquatic species are extracted outside the Vietnam’s maritime boundary; c) The registration of commercial fishing vessel has been cancelled; d) The conditions prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article are no longer satisfied.
6. The period of a commercial fishing license is specified as follows: a) The period of the license issued for the first time or reissued in accordance with regulations of Point c Clause 4 of this Article shall not exceed the remaining period of the fishing quota from the day on which it is issued; b) The period of the license reissued in accordance with regulations in Points a and b Clause 4 of this Article shall be the same as the remaining period of the issued license.
7. Contents of a commercial fishing license will be adjusted if there is any variation in aquatic resources as prescribed in Clause 4 Article 49 of this Law. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and People’s Committees of provinces shall notify adjustments to licenses to extract aquatic resources to shipowners.

Foreign organizations or individuals will be issued with commercial fishing licenses within the Vietnam’s maritime boundary if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. There are international agreements or international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory; licenses or approvals granted by competent authorities of the country owning the commercial fishing vessels specifying that the commercial fishing within the Vietnam’s maritime boundary is allowed;
2. There are investment registration certificates issued by competent authorities or cooperation projects on engaged in fishing approved by the Prime Minister or cooperation projects on investigating and assessing aquatic resources, technical training, transferring technologies in fishery, collecting and transporting aquatic species within the Vietnam’s maritime boundary that have been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development or Chairmen/Chairwomen of People’s Committees of provinces. Projects on fishing within the Vietnam’s maritime boundary are approved in accordance with regulations in Points a and b Clause 2 Article 50 of this Law. The commercial fishing vessels are not included in the list of illegal commercial fishing vessels made and published by Vietnamese competent authorities or RFMOs or international authorities;
3. There are registration certificates of commercial fishing vessels and certificates of technical safety whose remaining period is at least 6 months issued by the competent authorities of the flag state and certificates of use of frequency and radio transmitters issued by Vietnamese competent authorities;
4. There is a list of crewmembers. Masters and chief engineer officers have degrees or certificates suitable for types of vessels. Foreign crewmembers of foreign commercial fishing vessels operating within the Vietnam’s maritime boundary are approved by the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of National Defense. Ship officers have passports and insurance;
5. There are vehicle tracking devices as prescribed by regulations and law;
6. At least one person working on the vessel is proficient in Vietnamese or English.

1. Illegal commercial fishing activities include: a) Commercial fishing without licenses; b) Commercial fishing in the areas where it is banned, commercial fishing in the period when it is banned; catching and transporting aquatic species banned from commercial fishing; catching aquatic species whose sizes are smaller than those prescribed by law; being engaged in banned fisheries or using banned fishing tackle; c) Illegally catch of endangered, precious and rare aquatic species; d) Illegal commercial fishing in the waters under management of RFMOs, other countries or territories; dd) Illegal commercial fishing exceeding the production of each aquatic species, failure to catch aquatic species in the areas and within the period specified in the licenses; e) Concealment, counterfeiting or destruction of evidence for violations of regulations related to catching and protection of aquatic resources; g) Stopping and resisting persons carrying out inspections and supervision of compliance with regulations on extracting and protecting aquatic resources; h) Transshipping or providing assistance for vessels determined to be involved in illegal commercial fishing, except for force majeure; i) Failure to have sufficient communication equipment and vehicle tracking devices or operate them in accordance with regulations of law; k) Failure to have certificates of eligibility for food safety as prescribed by law; l) Temporary importation, temporary exportation, merchanting trade and transit of aquatic species and aquatic products originating from illegal commercial fishing; m) Failure to keep fishing logbooks, failure to keep sufficient and proper logbooks, failure to submit fishing logbooks or reports in accordance with regulations of law; n) Use of stateless commercial fishing vessels or vessels obtaining nationality of non-member countries for illegal commercial fishing in the international waters under the management of RFMOs; o) Failure to use commercial fishing vessels in accordance with regulations on extracting and protecting aquatic resources in the international waters not under the management of RFMOs