Huge Anti- IUU Tuna Fishing Operation Launched From Solomonsff

Operation Kurukuru 2008, a coordinated maritime surveillance operation in which countries cooperate to detect activities such as illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU), smuggling and people trafficking, was hosted by the Solomon Islands a few days ago.

Five-hundred people were actively involved in Operation Kurukuru 2008 which resulted in locating 300 foreign fishing vessels in the area of operations, 20 of which were considered worthy of further investigation after analysis. Thirty days of patrol at sea were provided plus the four aircraft involved in the operation undertook 100 hours of aerial surveillance.

Covering an area of 10.6 million square kilometers - including the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, Operation Kurukuru 2008 involved surveillance and law enforcement staff from all of these countries working together with their counterparts from Australia, New Zealand, France and US over 12 days of surveillance.

Surveillance was conducted by individual countries within their respective EEZ’s using 8 Pacific Class Patrol Boats (from Cook Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga (2), Tuvalu, Kiribati and Vanuatu), 4 US Coast Guard Cutters and 1 French Frigate. This was supported by aerial surveillance provided by 4 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (2 P-3 Orions supplied by Australia & New Zealand, a Guardian supplied by France and a Hercules C-130 from the US Coast Guard).

Director of the Maritime Unit of SIPF Eddie Tokuru said: “Solomon Islands Police Force Maritime Unit is pleased to host Operation Kurukuru 2008 and contribute to cooperative approach in regional surveillance operations.”

Air Commodore Tony Jones, Director General Pacific and East Timor, International Policy Division, Australian Department of Defense, added: “The Australian Defense Co-Operation Program is pleased to see the improvement in regional co-operation in maritime law enforcement fostered by the conduct of Operation Kurukuru again this year.”

Operation Kurukuru 2008 was coordinated by a team based in the Solomon Islands Police Force Maritime Unit’s newly launched Operations Room, upgraded with funding from the Australian Defense Cooperation Program.

The Operations Room relies on access to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) E-Operations system which collects, displays and analyses aircraft and vessel movements over the entire operations area in an interactive display. By collating information from regional and national license and suspected illegal fishing lists, the E-Operations system can identify and monitor suspicious vessels.

Regional surveillance staff, trained by FFA in how to use the E-Operations system, then can prioritize their operations efforts, contact national staff and make decisions on where to allocate surveillance aircraft and patrol boats.

Operation Kurukuru 2008 also involved participation by U.S. Navy as an observer in the regional headquarters with a view to providing aircraft participation next year for the first time, signing of an enduring VMS data sharing agreement by Samoa with all other FFA members and a visit by Australian Defense Minister Hon Joel Fitzgibbon on Sept. 10 to view the operation in progress.

Operation Kurukuru is an activity to meet the broader objectives of sustainable development and regional security of The Pacific Plan.

Director of Fisheries Operations of FFA, Luatutu Andre Volentras said FFA is proud to be a part of Operation Kurukuru which has brought Pacific Island countries and territories together this week to share information and resources to survey our seas and combat illegal fishing.

”Using FFA support such as training, the E-Operations Room and FFA Vessel Monitoring System, participants in this operation have demonstrated skills, capability and regional solidarity,” he said.