Operation Kurukuru, a surveillance system operation designed to tackle illegal fishing throughout the Pacific, has produced results that could have the potential to lead to prosecution of several tuna vessel owners. However, in a video posted on Radio Australia, it said that support from a number of FFA Pacific nations for operations to stop illegal fishing has fallen short of expectations, due to them not making enough vessels of airplanes available.
The video shows the efforts of the six patrol boats remaining from the originally planned 12 that are carrying out checks on tuna vessels fishing in the exclusive economic zones of Pacific nations. The footage shows how the highly advanced Satellite monitoring surveillance system at work, which for example immediately marks ships in red that are identified as not supplying relevant catch data, highlighting them to the Forum Fisheries Agency as ‘high interest vessels’.
Solomon Islanders show their delight in identifying illegal fishing activities saying that “it gives you satisfaction that what you have contributed to the region has amounted to something the region getting back like members getting some form of compensation.†Clearly the fight against IUU is becoming a very advanced high tech “ warâ€, being fought out in “war rooms†packed with the latest detection technologies.
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