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Domestic Stories Illegal Driftnet Ships Being TrackedNavy Public Affairs
ESQUIMALT, B.C. — The Victoria-based Marine Operations Centre (Pacific) was put on alert May 12 to support the annual enforcement operation to curtail illegal driftnet fishing in the North Pacific Ocean.
The interagency facility is located in the navy’s Pacific Headquarters and coordinates information to detect, assess and respond to marine security threats. The centre keeps a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week watch over a large expanse of the Pacific Ocean and shares information with partner agencies to ensure each can enforce their maritime mandates more effectively. The centre is supported by Larry Paike from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the lead agency for Canada in the enforcement of the 1992 United Nation’s ban on high seas driftnet fishing.
Driftnet fishing involves a large fishing net that is buoyed up by floats and carried along the current. It has been widely criticized, and finally, banned, because of its harmful effects on sustainable fishing. It has been argued to drastically decrease fish populations, harming future supply.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada inspectors are aboard Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora Long Range Patrol Aircraft in the ongoing, joint multinational effort to identify and report suspected fishing vessels. Suspect ships are interdicted by either the United States Coast Guard, Russia’s Federal Border Service, Japan’s Maritime Safety Agency or other appropriate protection services.
“This multinational enforcement operation is a model of international cooperation that has helped to protect fish stocks in the North Pacfific,” said Robert Martinolich, Chief Enforcement Operations, Pacific Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The annual detection and enforcement operation has helped to reduce the illegal driftnet fishery by about 90 per cent since its 1998 peak.
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