Joining The Fight To Eliminate IUU Fishing In Pacific Waters
At the beginning of our career in the Ministry, we had to travel out to sea to monitor transshipment and fishing activities onboard commercial fishing vessels. We also had to board and inspect all fishing vessels that arrive and depart the Suva Port. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all fishing vessels, whether Fiji-flagged or foreign-flagged, adhere to the law of the sea while in our waters and ports and are not engaged in IUU fishing. Sereana Logavatu Fisheries Assistant (Enforcement)
Monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) is very critical if we are to succeed in marine conservation and management. It is true that effective MCS remains challenging, especially for the deep and distant waters of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).
That is why it is equally important for countries to forge stronger and smarter partnerships to tackle the range of problems that arise when there is a weak MCS.
Fiji, along with 17 other countries, is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), a regional body that strengthens national capacity and regional solidarity so they are able to manage, control and develop their tuna fisheries.
A range of existing international instruments, institutions and guidelines relevant to MCS in ABNJ are in place, while traditional approaches to MCS - on-board observers, logbooks and surveillance planes - are increasingly being supplemented by a range of innovative new technological tools.
Fiji has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of around 1.3 million square kilometres, and it is quite challenging to protect its sovereign rights for fishing and other economic activities over such a vast area of sea. But through smart partnerships, Fiji has been able to make some progress with monitoring its waters, increasing its maritime domain awareness, and increasing the capacity and capability to enforce its maritime laws.
Learning more about operations and what it entails
Operation Kurukuru, based in Honiara, Solomon Islands, was held last month and is the biggest and final operation of the year, consisting of 15 member countries and quadrilateral partners (Australia, New Zealand, USA and France), who provide assets and support the surveillance activities.
Operation Kurukuru is one of an annual series of four MCS operations aimed at curbing illegal fishing throughout the FFA members’ jurisdictions, and this year, two officers from the Ministry’s Offshore Fisheries Management Division were part of it.
Fisheries Technical Officer (Enforcement and Surveillance) Waisea Aka and Fisheries Assistant (Enforcement) Sereana Logavatu took part in the operation and said that it was a huge privilege to be part of something bigger.
“We were very fortunate to be part of the three weeks of training and operation. The actual operation was two weeks and before that, we were trained for a week and assigned our roles for the actual operation,” explained Mr Aka.
“It was truly an eye-opener for the both of us as we have also been part of many operations. The vessel monitoring system is one of the tools we were fully engaged with during the two weeks of operation and we learned a lot with regards to using the Video Monitoring System (VMS) as an MCS tool in the larger MCS toolbox, especially in combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region.” Ms Logavatu says that her stint as a ship rider earlier in the year with the US Coastguard was an added bonus to her role during Operation Kurukuru.
“We shared a lot of knowledge as well with other enforcement officers from neighbouring countries, and it was indeed a great way to analyse the work that we do in our respective countries and bring back something positive, which will certainly add value to the work that we currently carry out,” said Ms Logavatu.
Both officers have had extensive experience in operations work both internationally and regionally. They both agree that the experiences they had during the operation have improved their understanding of the greater work that needs to be done in order to eliminate IUU fishing.
“At the beginning of our career in the Ministry, we had to travel out to sea to monitor transshipment and fishing activities onboard commercial fishing vessels. We also had to board and inspect all fishing vessels that arrive and depart the Suva Port.
“The ultimate goal is to ensure that all fishing vessels, whether Fiji-flagged or foreign-flagged, adhere to the law of the sea while in our waters and ports and are not engaged in IUU fishing.”
Both agree that being part of these operations is a huge plus for the organization, as together with our Pacific partners we will continue to collaborate and work towards combating IUU.
How Operation Kurukuru succeeded
FFA Director of Fisheries Operations Allan Rahari stated that the team used the difficult operating conditions throughout COVID-19 to test emerging technologies, increase training and focus on boarding and inspection capability.
“We didn’t have any gaps in our operations during COVID-19 thanks to our use of virtual platforms and the latest technologies, but having all the human resources back together for our operation has been invaluable for ensuring vessel compliance,” said Mr Rahari.
“The collaboration between FFA staff, our member countries and our quadrilateral partners is a uniquely Pacific approach to protecting this enormous area of ocean that we cover. It also includes a multi-agency approach involving local and regional partners, including Fisheries, Maritime Police, Defence Forces and other maritime security agencies.”
The FFA-coordinated operation included 19 seconded officers within the Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre from Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, U.S and Vanuatu.
The team supported members in their efforts to collate, analyse and filter data in order to improve national and regional surveillance efforts and encourage and coordinate members’ monitoring and surveillance activities in EEZs and on the high seas in the fight against IUU fishing.
The operational area consisted of the 15 Pacific Island FFA Members’ Exclusive Economic Zones and adjacent high seas. The operational area was over 23 million square kilometres in size, which is over three times the land mass of Australia.
The FFA Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre coordinated intelligence to support all national headquarters, and inform the deployment of seven planes, satellites and 12 ships. The Canadian government also provided remote sensing assistance, using satellite data to identify potential dark targets.
Conclusion
Permanent Secretary for Fisheries Pene Baleinabuli said that as a Pacific nation, oceanic states such as Fiji have special security needs and that the protection of maritime resources is among the most important.
“We are grateful to be partnering with our Pacific neighbours in operations such as this, and we thank FFA and partners for their leading role in training and guiding our officers to be the best that they can be,” Mr Baleinabuli said. “Enhancing maritime security is critical to combating IUU, and we are hugely encouraged with the support from Fiji’s development partners and the fact that both our men and women are up to the task.”