The North Pacific mission targets illegal fishermen

Canada has shown some muscle in the North Pacific, catching bad actors who continue to kill sharks for their fins and others who harvest out-of-season species that are key to the survival of British Columbia’s salmon.

For the first time, a Canadian coast guard ship and fisheries officers led a mission to crack down on fishing fleets beyond 200 nautical miles that do not comply with international regulations.

Operation North Pacific Guard, a two-month mission aboard the Victoria-based Sir Wilfred Laurier, covered more than 20,000 kilometers and involved armed Canadian fisheries authorities and other partners, including American counterparts, who boarded 15 international vessels.

Canadian fisheries officers were part of an international mission last year aboard a contract vessel with international partners and have been part of aerial reconnaissance in the region for decades.

But it was the first time a Canadian Coast Guard ship had led the effort.

The crew documented several cases of marine pollution, patrolled illegal drift nets and recalled several fishing boats, commonly known as “dark vessels”, due to their monitoring systems being deliberately switched off.

The Sir Wilfred Laurier was supported by Canadian aerial surveillance based in Hokkaido, Japan, in partnership with the governments of Japan and South Korea, and satellite monitoring that pinpointed the fishing vessels’ locations.

Sir Wilfred Laurier returned to his home port on Sunday evening. The crew said they would have boarded and authorized more ships if not for their late start due to lengthy engine repairs and stormy fall weather that made landing difficult.

Dustin De Gagnier, senior officer at the International Fisheries Control Unit’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said officers had encountered several cases of illegal shark finning, misreporting of catches, problems with vessel marking and boats not using the required transponders to could hand over their location to the authorities.

The crew also found one vessel with a significant illegal catch of Pacific saury, a small herring-like fish that is a major species in the North Pacific.

De Gag said one vessel was caught with 20 tons of out-of-season saury worth C$3 million.

“It’s an important species for the North Pacific ecosystem and a forage species for Pacific salmon,” he said. “So it’s important that we look not only for potential bycatch of Pacific salmon, but also species that are vital to their marine life cycle, feeding patterns and diet.”

The boarding gave Canadian officers the first opportunity to enforce the recently enacted ban on keeping Pacific salmon, which has been in effect for North Pacific fishing fleets since July.

Fisheries officials did not specify the country of origin of the vessels found with illegal catches or violations, but said those stopped and boarded were part of Asian “long-distance fleets” flying the flags of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Canadian fisheries officers are prohibited from seizing illegal catches, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it is working with the vessels’ flag states to support further investigations and sanctions against offending vessels.

“We are providing a comprehensive report to the flag state and it has a responsibility to the international community to ensure a full investigation and then apply appropriate sanctions against the illegal actors,” De Gag said.

Asked if he was confident that countries would act against illegal fishermen, De Gag said those countries that break the rules have a responsibility to the larger community of members of international fishing organizations.

“They are required to report their findings, and if those findings are found to be insufficient, an inspecting country such as Canada can propose to ban that vessel from fishing in the future,” he said. “It’s called the IUU (illegal, unregulated, unreported) fishing list, and that’s what these countries don’t want, so they’ll usually cooperate with the inspecting members.”

During 34 patrols, aircrews patrolled 50,000 nautical miles and visually inspected 407 vessels. During these patrols, fisheries officers “reported incidents of shark removal, targeting of dolphins, incidents of pollution and violations of vessel markings,” DFO said.

In addition to monitoring and enforcement, fisheries officers collected environmental data and water samples, including migration ranges of species of interest such as Pacific salmon and levels of microplastics in the water.

This year’s mission also marked two firsts for the Canadian Coast Guard — the first visit of a Coast Guard ship to a port in Japan and the first use of a cleaner blend of renewable diesel, biodiesel and conventional diesel fuel, a significant step toward a greener fleet and a federal mandate to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 year.

Sir Wilfred Laurier underwent a refit this year to replace three engines and controls. The new fuel mixture reduced emissions by 80%, and fuel oil and lubricant consumption doubled.

Captain Richard Marriott, who served on the Sir Wilfred Laurier for two decades, said the light icebreaker was “a different knife when it comes to multitasking operations.”

He said the addition of fishing operations in the North Pacific is ideal for ships involved in everything from searching for the wreckage of the Franklin Expedition to vital northern transportation and supply and scientific expeditions.

“It’s a very well-equipped vessel for any mission, and we’ve shown it again this time,” Marriott said.

(email protected)