Operation North Pacific Guard wraps up unprecedented four-nation patrol of the Pacific high seas

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Ottawa, ON - Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a serious problem around the world, posing a significant threat to fish populations and damaging marine environments. IUU fishing also jeopardizes the incomes of law-abiding harvesters and fishing industries and puts food supplies at risk for millions of people.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) continues to do its part to detect and deter IUU fishing, having recently completed this year’s Operation North Pacific Guard (Op. NPG) mission. This was DFO’s third patrol under the annual, multi-national high seas operation in the North Pacific, and the first to have representatives from four nations onboard a single patrol vessel. The Canadian patrol included representatives from Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States. The mission was supported by personnel from the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Fishery officers and support personnel patrolled 17,773 km while onboard the Canadian Coast Guard vessel, the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a high endurance, multi-purpose vessel that is also a light icebreaker and is biofuel capable. Over the course of two months, the expert crew monitored several hundred fishing vessels, conducted 41 high-seas inspections and interacted with more than 1,000 crew members onboard vessels.

The high-seas inspections resulted in the detection of 39 potential violations of international fisheries requirements, including shark finning, the illegal harvest of dolphins, misreporting or inaccurate reporting of catch and bycatch, as well as obstruction and the destruction of evidence.

Canada also deployed one of the DFO’s long-range Fisheries Aerial Surveillance and Enforcement aircraft, which is normally based in Campbell River, British Columbia, to Hokkaido, Japan where daily patrols monitored fishing activity the Northwest Pacific. A total of 366 fishing vessels were inspected by air and 51 potential violations related to shark finning, pollution, salmon retention, and marking requirements were detected.

During this year’s mission, the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier made a special port visit in Osaka, Japan, while the World Expo was underway. Thousands of members of the public learned about Canada’s role in fighting IUU fishing through tours of the vessel and engagement with Canadian Coast Guard crew and fishery officers at the Expo’s Canada Pavilion.

The CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier also made a port visit in Hakodate, providing an unique opportunity to strengthen relations between the Canadian and Japanese Coast Guards.

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Quotes

“The thousands of hours that our fishery officers spend patrolling the North Pacific Ocean each year, by air and sea, detecting and deterring illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, is a strong demonstration that Canada backs its support for international laws with concrete action. The ongoing success of Operation North Pacific Guard attests to the continued need for Canada to be a leader in securing marine species and ecosystems at home and abroad in support of both our conservation and economic objectives.”

- The Honourable Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries

Noah Note: Operation North Pacific Guard is an excellent showcase of Canada and her Coast Guards valuable contribution to allies. Through programs like the Dark Vessel Detection Program Canada has been a leading partner in the pacific against IUU fishing.

I am happy to see this program extended to our partners in Taiwan, something announced a few days ago. Im also happy to see the federal government commit to further cooperation with MDA as part of the program, include priority access to MDAs Chorus sattelite constellation set to come online next year.

Obviously this is a hard fight. These are only part of the solution, and a lot more needs to be done. That includes increasing the frequency of these kinds of operations and expanding with new joint patrols and exercises with Indo-Pacific partners. Both I'm happy to hear the government is committed to doing.