The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) Maritime has completed another successful patrol of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with the return of the patrol boat Auki to Honiara after spending 10 days at sea.
‘Operation Kurukuru’ held from 1 – 10 October 2018, was coordinated by the Forum Fisheries Agencies (FFA) in Honiara. It is an annual operation done for FFA member countries targeting illegal fishing and illegal activities within the EEZ of its member countries.
Speaking at his media conference today, RSIPF Commissioner Matthew Varley says, “This is just one of the many sea patrols both the patrol boats Auki and Lata are engaged in to protect the Solomon Islands National integrity and waters.”
Commissioner Varley adds: “And for the past 10 days the Auki has been on ‘Operation Kurukuru’ which is a joint Police and FFA operation targeting illegal fishing in our EEZ.”
“Our patrol boat has been out there in the northern part of our country conducting a whole range of inspections and boarding’s on the fishing vessels,” says Commissioner Varley.
During the patrol, Police Maritime officers boarded 13 foreign fishing vessels and one yacht. Another two sightings were made but due to bad weather at the time, officers were not able to board the vessels.
He adds: “At this stage we understand that all of the foreign fishing vessels boarded were long line fishing vessels, that are licenced to fish in our EEZ and our officers did a whole range of inspections on their licences and their compliance with our laws.”
“I want to thank my officers at the Maritime Unit and the FFA for their coordination and leadership of the operation.”
“Our Maritime officers are working very hard to protect our sovereign waters in some very difficult and tough conditions,” says Commissioner Varley.