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Military

15 January 2003

"International Cooperation Deters Illegal Fishing," by Cdr. John Davis

(U.S., Russian, other authorities work together against driftnet
vessels) (2000)
(The following article by Commander John Davis of the U.S. Coast Guard
appears in the International Information Programs electronic journal
"Overfishing: A Global Challenge" issued in January 2003. This article
and the rest of the journal may be viewed on the Web at
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/journals.htm. No republication
restrictions.)
(begin byliner)
How International Enforcement Cooperation Deters Illegal Fishing in
the North Pacific
Commander John Davis, Chief, Fisheries Enforcement Division, U.S.
Coast Guard
(Multinational cooperation is essential in enforcing conservation of
fisheries over the vast distances of the ocean, says Commander John
Davis, chief of fisheries enforcement for the U.S. Coast Guard. Davis
describes how U.S. cooperation with Russian and Chinese authorities
has achieved a steep drop in illegal driftnet fishing in the North
Pacific.)
Preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the
high seas is a daunting task. Vast areas of ocean to monitor,
enforcement resource limitations, and the sheer number of fishing
vessels plying the seas only make the situation worse. The result of
illegal fishing is further depletion of the world's fish stocks,
natural resources and food reserves. No single nation can stamp out
IUU fishing. If nations work together and unify their enforcement
efforts, however, IUU fishing can be deterred in many regions.
A shining example of this sort of international cooperation is the
North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. The cooperation, planning
and commitment of enforcement resources by all member states are a
model for all other regional fisheries management organizations to
follow.
The Convention for Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North
Pacific Ocean, signed in February 1992 and entered into force in
February 1993, created the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission to
promote conservation of anadromous stocks -- fish that are born in
fresh water, migrate to the ocean to grow as adults, and then return
to fresh water to spawn -- as well as ecologically related species in
the North Pacific.
Commission contracting parties are Canada, Japan, Russia, and the
United States. In addition to conservation of anadromous fish stocks,
commission member states also work closely together to enforce the
1991 United National General Assembly moratorium on large-scale
high-seas driftnet fishing, prohibiting the use of nets greater than
2.5 kilometers in length.(1) These "curtains of death" have a
devastating impact on marine life, from whales to sea birds to the
anadromous species that the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission
was chartered to conserve.
The commission is the only regional organization whose charter
specifically addresses enforcement agency interoperability. The
cooperative enforcement efforts of the parties have been successful in
reducing illegal fishing operations within the Convention Area(2) from
the 1998 high of 24 known vessels to virtually no known IUU fishing
over the past few years. This type of multinational enforcement
cooperation is the key to future protection of the world's natural
resources.
Planning and Coordination of Enforcement Activities
Planning and coordination of enforcement activities within the
Convention Area is the responsibility of the Committee on Enforcement.
This committee holds annual workshops to coordinate patrol activities
and to confirm notification procedures in the event illegal fishing
activity is discovered. The results of these workshops are evident
during the peak fisheries period for high-seas driftnet enforcement
operations. Canadian CP-140 and U.S. Coast Guard C-130 aircraft deploy
out of Alaska to patrol the Convention Area, frequently with
enforcement agents of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service on
board. Furthermore, during the Canadian CP-140 deployments, a Canadian
Department of National Defense officer also works out of the U.S.
Coast Guard office in Juneau to coordinate patrols and response to
sightings.
Enforcement interoperability of the parties was further enhanced in
2001 when a Joint Operations Information Coordination Group was
established to exchange enforcement-related information for protection
of salmon resources and prevent high-seas driftnet fishing in the
Convention Area. The group comprises designated enforcement officials
of each of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission parties.
Coordination Group points of contact communicate with each other at
least once each month to ensure open lines of communications and to
coordinate dissemination of information with appropriate government
agencies or entities.
Continual evaluation and improvement of enforcement activities was
further enhanced with the establishment of an Enforcement Procedures
Working Group in October 2002. This group has begun work on threat
analysis and vessel profiling. The U.S. Coast Guard has been the
primary agency providing threat assessment information to the
Enforcement Committee, using past fishing activity, market conditions,
political factors, and deterrent measures to determine the threat
level in the Convention Area for each year. The Coast Guard has also
developed a CD-ROM for all parties that contains photographs of
research, enforcement, and high-seas driftnet vessels. The group is
working towards integrating information from all parties into the
threat assessments and vessel profiling data.
China provides ancillary enforcement support within the Convention
Area although it is not a signatory to the Convention. The Chinese
cooperate with the United States by way of a 1993 Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) that established a boarding/shiprider agreement.
This agreement provides non-flag-state enforcement authority and
establishes boarding procedures for law-enforcement officials of
either country to board U.S.- or China-flagged vessels suspected of
illegal driftnet fishing on the high seas. The MOU allows Chinese
fisheries enforcement officials to embark on U.S. Coast Guard cutters
during each driftnet season.
As a bilateral enforcement agreement, the MOU facilitates and
expedites investigations of suspicious vessels when they are
encountered on the high seas. Chinese shipriders have been based in
Kodiak, Alaska, every year since 1994 and have been instrumental in a
number of high-seas driftnet boardings and seizures. These shipriders
participate in Coast Guard C-130 high-seas driftnet surveillance
flights and deploy on Coast Guard cutters responding to high-seas
driftnet vessel sightings.
Successes in Enforcement
Multinational enforcement cooperation by parties of the North Pacific
Anadromous Fish Commission has enabled remarkable success in
interdicting and deterring illegal large-scale high-seas driftnet
fishing. In 1998, four of 24 vessels suspected of such driftnet
fishing sighted in the Convention Area were interdicted and seized by
U.S. Coast Guard and Russian Federal Border Service vessels. In 1999,
three of 10 vessels suspected of illegal driftnet fishing sighted
within the Convention Area were interdicted and seized through the
coordination of Canadian, Russian, American, and Chinese enforcement
resources. In 2001 only one vessel was sighted, interdicted, and
seized for illegal fishing operations in the Convention Area, and in
2002, none, although one vessel was detected fishing illegally just
outside the Convention Area and inside the Russian 200-mile exclusive
economic zone (EEZ). The Russian Federal Border Service interdicted
that vessel.
The following cases demonstrate the international cooperation
necessary to interdict and seize vessels engaging in illegal fishing
operations over the past three years:
-- On April 18, 1999, a Canadian surveillance aircraft observed a
fishing vessel conducting large-scale high-seas driftnet fishing
operations approximately 500 nautical miles southwest of Attu, Alaska.
The following day, the vessel was sighted with 10 miles of a net in
the water. That information was passed to the U.S. Coast Guard and the
Russian Federal Border Service. On April 19, the Coast Guard Cutter
Rush intercepted the vessel, identified as the Russian-flagged
Lobana-1. During the boarding, seven tons of salmon were discovered.
On April 21, custody of the Lobana-1 was transferred to the Russian
Federal Border Service vessel Brest for enforcement action.
-- On April 25, 1999, the Coast Guard Cutter Rush observed the Ying
Fa, flying China's flag, conducting driftnet fishing operations
approximately 800 nautical miles southwest of Attu. The Ying Fa was
boarded under the authority of the U.S.-China boarding/shiprider MOU
with the assistance of a Chinese shiprider on the Rush. The boarding
revealed 6.2 tons of salmon and a 10-mile driftnet. The master stated
he intended to fish until 40-50 tons of salmon were caught. The
government of China refuted the registration claim of the Ying Fa, and
it was assimilated to a vessel without nationality, seized, and
escorted to Adak, Alaska, for enforcement action under U.S. law.
-- On May 1, 1999, a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 surveillance flight
observed the Tayfun-4 conducting large-scale high-seas driftnet
fishing operations 450 nautical miles southwest of Attu, Alaska. The
Coast Guard Cutter Rush intercepted and boarded the Russian-flagged
vessel on May 3 and discovered two tons of salmon. On May 6 custody of
the Tayfun-4 was transferred to the Russian Federal Border Service
vessel Barrs for enforcement action.
-- On May 12, 2000, the Coast Guard, with authorization from the
government of Honduras, seized the Honduran-flagged fishing vessel
Arctic Wind for illegal driftnet fishing within the Convention Area.
At least three driftnets totaling 20 miles were left behind by the
Arctic Wind, and one whale was entangled in the net. The Arctic Wind
was sold at auction for $226,600. More than half of the vessel's catch
proved to be salmon from Alaskan spawning areas as determined by
National Marine Fisheries Service genetic testing.
-- On May 16, 2001, delegates from all parties attending the annual
North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission enforcement coordination
meeting participated in the first high-seas driftnet patrol flight of
the Convention Area by a Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft patrol staged out
of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. A trawler converted into a
driftnet-fishing vessel -- later identified as the Russian-flagged
Sakhfrakt-3 -- was observed driftnet fishing 15 nautical miles inside
the Russian EEZ just outside the Convention Area. The Russian Federal
Border Service ship Dzerzhinsky was contacted and immediately diverted
to intercept the Sakhfrakt-3. Upon boarding, the Federal Border
Service found the vessel was equipped for driftnet fishing, having on
board radio buoys, five driftnets with a combined length of 17
nautical miles, processing equipment and shipping boxes. The
Dzerzhinsky directed the vessel to recover its driftnets containing
1,460 salmon. The Sakhfrakt-3 was escorted to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
and charged with multiple violations of Russian law. The master of the
Sakhfrakt-3 had his license to fish suspended for three years and was
fined 1.2 million rubles (approximately US$41,000).
-- In 2002, Canadian surveillance flights detected three vessels
matching the profile of a driftnet vessel. Investigation revealed that
one of the vessels, the MYS Nord, was a large-scale driftnet vessel
operating just inside the Russian EEZ. Canada provided copies of the
MYS Nord evidence package to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish
Commission parties in May 2002. Russia conducted an investigation of
the MYS Nord and found no evidence of high-seas driftnet fishing
although it proposed to include the vessel in the North Pacific
Anadromous Fish Commission database of suspected large-scale high-seas
driftnet vessels.
Conclusion
Activity in the high-seas driftnet high-threat area has been quiet in
2001 and 2002. Although this may be due in part to deteriorating
global salmon market conditions, aggressive enforcement coordination
by North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission parties and
well-publicized interdiction successes over the past three years
undoubtedly have been a significant deterrent to illegal high-seas
fishing activity. This multinational enforcement cooperation is
necessary to overcome the vast ocean distances and jurisdictional
issues associated with illegal fishing on the high seas. The
commission continues to improve and refine its enforcement success and
is an excellent model for other regional fisheries management
organizations aiming to protect the oceans' valuable natural
resources.
1. In support of this resolution, the United States enacted The High
Seas Drift Net Enforcement Act.
2. The Convention Area is defined as "the waters of the North Pacific
Ocean and its adjacent seas, north of 33 degrees north latitude beyond
200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the
territorial sea is measured."
(end byliner)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



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