SEATTLE — The 150-member crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star returned March 25 to their homeport of Seattle following a 123-day deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said. 

This mission marks the Polar Star’s 23rd journey to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, an annual joint military service mission to resupply U.S. Antarctic stations, in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the Antarctic program. This year also marks the 63rd iteration of the operation. 

The Polar Star crew departed Seattle on Nov. 27 for their sixth deployment in as many years and traveled more than 26,350 miles through the North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. 

In the Southern Ocean, the crew travelled through nearly 500 miles of pack ice and broke through 23 miles of fast ice in order to create a nearly 18-square-mile navigable channel to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Because of the efforts of the Polar Star crew, two resupply vessels and one tanker travelled to McMurdo Station unescorted in order to refuel and resupply U.S. Antarctic stations. 

This year’s operation required the construction of a temporary, modular mobile causeway to replace an ice pier, which disintegrated during Operation Deep Freeze 2018-2019. The modular pier required a three-day construction period prior to the offload of supplies, followed by a three-day deconstruction period at the conclusion of the mission. 

Three resupply ships required 23 days to offload 19.6 million pounds of cargo and 7.6 million gallons of fuel during this year’s operation, more than doubling the operation duration and capacity as previous years. Together, the three ships delivered enough fuel and critical supplies to sustain NSF operations throughout the year until Polar Star returns in 2021. 

Among the cargo offloaded were construction materials for a five-year, $460 million Antarctica Infrastructure Modernization for Science (AIMS) project to recapitalize McMurdo Station, South Pole Station and other American outposts on the continent.  

Additionally, the Polar Star crew also supported a team of U.S. government officials from the State Department, National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Coast Guard who conducted a five-day inspection of foreign research stations, installations and equipment in Antarctica. 

The team inspected three stations: Mario Zucchelli (Italy), Jang Bogo (South Korea) and Inexpressible Island (China). This was the 15th inspection of foreign research stations by the United States in Antarctica and the first since 2012. 

Inspections emphasize all of Antarctica is accessible to interested countries despite territorial claims and reinforce the importance of compliance with the Antarctic Treaty’s arms control provisions. The U.S. will present its report on the inspection at the next Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in May 2020. 

“I am very proud of the tenacity of this Polar Star crew,” said Coast Guard Capt. Greg Stanclik, commanding officer of the Polar Star. “158 crew members earned the Antarctic Service Medal during Operation Deep Freeze 2020.” 

ASTORIA, Ore. — The Coast Guard Cutter Alert returned home to Astoria on March 15 following a 69-day eastern Pacific Ocean counter-drug deployment, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release. The crew patrolled international waters off the coast of Mexico to disrupt the flow of narcotics and illegal migrants. 

Alert’s crew also participated in the North American Maritime Security Initiative (NAMSI) Pacific Exercise in and around Puerto Chiapas, Mexico. 

NAMSI is a trinational effort by forces of the United States, Canada and Mexico to improve mutual capacity for operational coordination. The three-day exercise focused on enhancing information-sharing and integrating capabilities of Canadian, U.S. and Mexican maritime forces during at-sea counter-drug interdiction operations. 

“It was a great experience to participate in and be a part of such a culturally diverse operational exercise,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Cristina Hickey, a Spanish translator and Alert crewmember. “I thoroughly enjoyed conversing in Spanish with my foreign counterparts and learning more about their missions.” 

Crews from the Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Bottoms, Pacific Strike Team, Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team, Pacific Area/D11 command center and Joint Interagency Task Force South also participated in the exercise alongside Canadian and Mexican maritime participants. 

“I’m proud of the hard work that our crew put into our Eastern Pacific patrol,” said Cdr. Tyson Scofield, Alert’s commanding officer.

“I am especially proud of the professionalism that the crew showed during our joint exercises with the Canadian and Mexican navies.  They displayed a high level of skill while demonstrating counter narcotics interdiction techniques and during the shipboard launch and recovering of a Mexican helicopter for the first time. Most importantly, our crew created personal and professional relationships with their North American peers which will help to counter the flow of illegal narcotics into all of our countries.”

BOSTON — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma returned to Kittery, Maine, on March 12 after a 70-day counter-drug patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard 1st District said in a release. 

Tahoma’s crew seized about 700 pounds of cocaine, valued at $12.5 million while working with an armed Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron MH-65 aircraft on board. 

The crew of Tahoma worked with several other Coast Guard units in the area to detain 27 suspected narcotics traffickers, and interdict 9,600 pounds of cocaine and 640 pounds of marijuana. 

Tahoma’s crew transited through the Panama Canal to conduct counter-drug operations under the tactical control of the Joint Interagency Task Force South in support of Operation Martillo. The operation involves 20 participating nations working together to counter transnational organized crime networks and illicit trafficking in the waters along Central America. 

“The crew was outstanding in executing the counter-drug mission in support of Operation Martillo,” said Cmdr. Michael Sarnowski, commanding officer of Tahoma. “I sincerely appreciate the contributions and professionalism from our detached teams while on this deployment.” 

Tahoma is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter with a crew complement of 100. They conduct maritime enforcement and homeland security missions in support of Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard plans to celebrate the keel-laying of the first Heritage-class offshore patrol cutter (OPC) next month in Panama City, Florida. 

Testifying March 10 before the House Homeland Security Committee, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz said the keel of the Argus, the first OPC hull, would be laid in April at the Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc. shipyard. 

The OPC is designed to replace the current fleet of medium-endurance cutters, which are between 30 and 50 years old. OPCs will provide a capability bridge between the national security cutter and the fast-response cutter. Each OPC will feature a flight deck and advanced C4ISR (command, control, computers, communications, intelligence and reconnaissance) capabilities.  

Delivery of the first OPC is expected in fiscal 2022. The Coast Guard plans to acquire 25 OPCs. The damage inflicted on the Eastern Shipbuilding facilities by Hurricane Michael in October 2018 resulted in the sea service granting relief to the shipbuilder, reducing its planned construction to four OPCs instead on nine and deciding to recompete the remainder of the OPC program.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Coast Guard Cutter Munro returned home on March 1 after a 78-day deployment, during which the crew seized an estimated $115 million worth of cocaine from suspected smugglers in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a Coast Guard Pacific Area release. 

The crew patrolled known drug-transit zones of the eastern Pacific from late December to mid-January and interdicted three suspected drug-smuggling vessels that carried 6,680 pounds of pure cocaine. 

The cocaine seized by Munro’s crew and three other Coast Guard cutters was part of a nearly 20,000-pound haul of the drug offloaded in San Diego on Feb. 11. 

This patrol was Munro’s second deployment to the eastern Pacific since the cutter’s 2017 commissioning. Last July, Vice President Mike Pence attended Munro’s offload of more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and 933 pounds of marijuana worth more than $500 million. That offload included contraband found aboard a self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel interdicted by Munro’s crew on June 18 that was carrying more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine. 

Following February’s offload, the crew began a multiweek tailored ship’s training availability — a set of drills, inspections and exercises that assess a ship’s mission readiness and damage control capabilities. The crew passed all 136 required drills, with an overall average of 97%. 

“I truly could not have asked for a better crew with whom to share these memories, but we didn’t do this alone,” said Capt. Jim Estramonte, the Munro’s commanding officer. “Through all our adventures, the friends and family members of Munro’s crew have supported us. It is their hard work at home that allows us to serve. Their sacrifice does not go unnoticed. So thank you to all those who make our success possible.” 

Munro is one of four national security cutters homeported in Alameda. These Legend-class cutters are 418 feet long, 54 feet wide and have a 4,600 long-ton displacement. They have a top speed in excess of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 nautical miles, endurance of up to 90 days and can hold a crew of nearly 150. 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Valiant returned home on Feb. 27 to Naval Station Mayport after completing a nine-week patrol in the Caribbean Sea, according to the Coast Guard 7th District.

The Valiant crew
patrolled more than 11,000 nautical miles in the Caribbean supporting Joint
Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) conducting humanitarian and law-enforcement
operations, ultimately saving 23 lives.

While underway, the Valiant crew interdicted a 30-foot disabled and adrift migrant vessel attempting an illegal voyage to Puerto Rico, about 37 nautical miles south of Isla Saona, Dominican Republic.

A Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry Maritime Patrol Aircraft crew spotted the vessel and directed Valiant to its location. This interdiction rescued 19 migrants whose vessel would not have had enough fuel to reach its U.S. destination. The crew later transferred the Dominican migrants to a Dominican navy vessel for a safe return home.

Previously, the Cutter
Richard Dixon crew transferred 50 migrants to Valiant from two separate
interdictions. The Valiant crew transported six of the migrants to Ramey Sector
Border Patrol Agents in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, for federal prosecution on
charges of attempting to illegally re-enter the United States. The crew then
repatriated the remaining 44 migrants to the Dominican Republic.

In addition to interdicting migrant vessels, the Valiant crew conducted joint law-enforcement operations with the Belize coast guard and hosted a Belize coast guard officer aboard.

This opportunity gave both nations the chance to communicate and learn from each other while sharing different law-enforcement techniques. As a result of the exercise, Belize was able to establish a presence further offshore in a suspected drug smuggling area. Throughout their patrol, the crew conducted law-enforcement operations with an embarked MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) from Jacksonville, Florida.

Near the end of the patrol, the Valiant crew located two disabled vessels in a known drug smuggling area within a 24-hour period. The first was experiencing engine troubles and the other was out of fuel, and both crews claimed they had been adrift and without food or water for days. The Valiant crew rescued all four from their stricken vessels, embarked them onboard the cutter as search-and-rescue survivors, and transferred them to the Colombian navy for transport back to land.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our crew this patrol as we plied the waters of the Caribbean for illicit maritime drug smugglers over the past two months in support of JIATF-S counterdrug operations, interdicting two logistics supply vessels,” said Cmdr. Matthew Waldron, Valiant’s commanding officer.

“Additionally, the crew demonstrated exceptional flexibility by quickly shifting gears from counter-drug to migrant operations and interdicting a disabled yola with 19 Dominican migrants bound for Puerto Rico in the middle of the night. Had it not been for the combined efforts of a forward-deployed Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 crew, the Dominican Republic navy and Valiant, the individuals on that yola would have likely been lost at sea. … That’s 19 lives saved.”

HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard interdicted several foreign vessels whose crews were fishing inside the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on two separate occasions in the first two months of 2020, according to the Coast Guard’s 14th District.  

“While we’ve seen incursions into the EEZs of partners and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the high seas, these are the first interdictions we’ve had in the U.S EEZ since 2012,” said Lt. Jason Holstead of 14th District Response Enforcement. “The combination of partnerships, electronic methods and putting assets on the scene to catch violators in the act is essential to deterring IUU fishing in Oceania.” 

In both cases, the Coast Guard was conducting maritime domain awareness flights in the zones off Guam and Hawaii with Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft crews based at Air Station Barbers Point. 

Case packages were forwarded to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for further actions. The investigations are pending.  

The living marine resources (LMR) mission is one of two Coast Guard missions devoted to protecting fisheries inside and outside U.S. waters. While LMR focuses on domestic fisheries, other law enforcement focuses on illegal incursions by foreign fishing vessels into the U.S. EEZ. An EEZ is defined as the region extending 200 miles beyond a nation’s shores. The Coast Guard leverages partnerships and 13 bilateral agreements between the U.S. and other nations in the Pacific to enforce fisheries regulations and combat IUU fishing.  

Fishing within the United States generates more than $200 billion and employs 1.7 million people annually. IUU fishing represents an estimated monetary loss of $10 billion to $23 billion for legitimate fishers. Globally, commercially landed tuna and tuna products have a value of $10 billion to $12 billion per year to the fishermen who target these species and more than $42 billion per year at the final point of sale. These conservative totals do not account for noncommercial tuna activity including sport fishing and tourism. 

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pacific Ocean — also known as the “tuna belt” — represents 65% to 70% percent of globally harvested tuna. 

According to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the international body that manages tuna fishing in the same waters, state fishers caught nearly 2.85 million metric tons of the primary commercial tuna species in 2014. This catch’s worth was valued at more than $5 billion to fishers in the region and more than $22.68 billion at the final point of sale. Tuna caught in the WCPFC convention area accounts for more than half of the landings, dock value and end value of all commercial tuna fisheries.  

While the Coast Guard is not the only agency responsible for protecting fisheries, it plays a significant role. The Coast Guard has enforcement authority over 202 separate commercial fisheries. 

“While regulation compliance among U.S. fishers is near 97%, some of the lowest policed areas, such as the waters in the western and central Pacific, are responsible for the highest percentage of significant violations. This is where the efforts of the Coast Guard 14th District and partners are so important,” Holstead said. “In 2019, we conducted numerous routine and analysis-based patrols throughout the region in support of IUU fishing detection and deterrence.” 

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Coast Guard is expanding its Charleston, South Carolina, station
into a major Atlantic base and home to its newest class of cutters.

In addition
to five 418-foot national security cutters, the Coast Guard’s largest and
newest sea-going patrol vessels, Charleston will be the homeport for a
complement of yet to be built offshore patrol cutters.

“Charleston
is a first stop to nationwide investment in our service, our facilities and our
people,” Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said in his State of the Coast Guard
address, which was live streamed from Charleston on Feb. 20.

Over the
next five years the Coast Guard plans to consolidate its campus along one
waterfront, starting with $140 million to begin upgrading shoreside facilities.
The improvements could turn Charleston into one of the nation’s largest
concentrations of Coast Guard assets and people. The port of Charleston is experiencing
unprecedented change, Schultz said, noting that by 2021, Charleston will have
the deepest harbor on the East Coast.

However, 40%
of Coast Guard buildings around the country are over 50 years old, leading to a
$2 billion backlog of facility repairs for mold, leaky roofs, flooding and
outdated building standards. The Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2021 budget request
is $12.3 billion, $77 million more than the $12.2 billion approved last
year.

There are
also problems with the agency’s 1990s-era computer hardware and software.
“Years of investment tradeoffs have brought our information technology to the
brink of catastrophic failure,” Schultz said. Over the summer, more than 95
vital systems went off-line for several days due to a single server malfunction.

To address information
technology issues, Schultz released the Coast Guard’s Tech Revolution Road Map
for digital modernization. Upgrades are planned over the next three years,
starting with increasing Coast Guard external internet speeds and doubling
connectivity for major cutters in 2020.

Communication
is also a problem in the Arctic, Schultz noted. The medium icebreaker Healy is
without reliable communications for a large part of its multimonth patrol above
the Arctic Circle. Last month the harsh environment in Alaska knocked out
communications equipment.

“As commandant, I need my operational commanders to be able to communicate with every Coast Guard asset — anytime, anywhere,” Schultz said. “We are exploring new satellite communications capabilities with the Department of Defense and industry, as well as renewing land-based communications capabilities in Alaska.” Arctic communications, however, are a “whole-of-government” issue, he said, adding “we must work together to solve our communication blackout in the Arctic now.”

The first of the 360-foot offshore patrol cutters, the Argus, is under construction with delivery planned in 2022. The OPC program calls for 25 hulls, ultimately making up almost 70% of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence.

They will replace the service’s 210-foot medium-endurance cutters and become “the backbone of our modernized fleet,” Schultz said. They will also play a critical role in the Coast Guard’s campaign against narcotics trafficking in the Western Hemisphere.

In a move to expand maritime domain awareness across the Pacific Ocean, the service is partnering with Global Fishing Watch, an international, no-profit big data technology platform that leverages satellite data to track global commercial fishing activity.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The “Great Power Competition” with Russia
and China isn’t limited to winning allies in geostrategic flash points or
sailing through contested areas to promote freedom of the seas, according to
the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Near-peer adversaries “are actively exploiting other
nations’ natural resources, including fish stocks. In many cases [they are]
challenging the sovereignty of smaller or less-developed nations,” Adm. Karl
Schultz said in his annual State of the Coast Guard address, live-streamed Feb.
20 from Charleston, South Carolina.

Schultz identified China, which has the world’s largest
distant water fishing fleet, as “one of the worst predatory fishing offenders,”
engaging in Illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUU). The problem goes
beyond conservation and sustainability, he said — “This is a national security
challenge warranting a clear response.”

An essential protein source for more than 40% the world’s
population, fish stocks are critical to the sovereignty and economic security
of many nations. The most conservative estimates put the annual loss to the global
economy from IUU fishing at more than $23 billion.

The Coast Guard could be a global leader in combatting IUU
fishing through international cooperation and targeted operations, Schultz
said, adding that the agency was developing a progressive IUU Strategic
Outlook, planned for release in late summer.

The United States already holds 16 counter-IUU fishing
bilateral agreements in the Pacific and West Africa. “And we are pursuing
additional agreements to help us push back against the destructive fishing
practices that are leaving vast expanses of the ocean and seabed in ruins,” he
said.

Nowhere is this more important than the Indo-Pacific, the
epicenter of global maritime trade and geostrategic influence, Schultz said.
Many Pacific Island countries — even U.S. island territories — lack the
capability to fully police their sovereign waters. Without mentioning any
country by name, Schultz said he was most concerned by a “coercive state’s
influence operations, intentions to construct dual-use infrastructure projects
and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed their strategic
agenda.”

To strengthen the community of island nations in Oceania,
the Coast Guard will continue Operation AIGA, which last year deployed an oceangoing
tender and a fast-response cutter (FRC) to Samoa and American Samoa, where they
conducted exercises with ships from the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand
navies. By year’s end, delivery is expected of the first two, 154-foot FRCs to
be homeported in Guam.

MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica — The 159 crew members onboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star departed McMurdo Station on Feb. 19 after escorting three refuel and resupply vessels and assisting with a five-day inspection of foreign research stations, installations and equipment in Antarctica, according to the Coast Guard Pacific Area. 

The departure marks the Polar Star’s 23rd journey to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, an annual joint military service mission to resupply U.S. stations in Antarctica, in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the U.S. Antarctic Program. 

The Seattle-based 399-foot, 13,000-ton Polar Star created a 23-mile channel through the ice to McMurdo Sound, which enabled the offload of over 19.5 million pounds of dry cargo and 7.6 million gallons of fuel from three logistics vessels. Together these three ships delivered enough fuel and critical supplies to sustain NSF operations throughout the year until Polar Star returns next year. 

The Polar Star also supported a team of U.S. government officials from the State Department, National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Coast Guard who conducted a five-day inspection of foreign research stations, installations and equipment. 

The U.S. continues to promote Antarctica’s status as a continent reserved for peace and science in accordance with the provisions of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. The inspection serves to verify compliance with the Antarctic Treaty and its environmental protocol, including provisions prohibiting military measures and mining as well as provisions promoting safe station operation and sound environmental practices.  

The team inspected three stations: Mario Zucchelli (Italy), Jang Bogo (South Korea) and Inexpressible Island (China). This was the 15th inspection of foreign research stations by the U.S. in Antarctica and the first since 2012. The U.S. will present its report on the inspections at the next Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in May. 

“I am immensely proud of all the hard work and dedication the men and women of the Polar Star demonstrate each and every day,” said Greg Stanclik, commanding officer of the heavy icebreaker.  

“Maintaining and operating a 44-year-old ship in the harshest of environments takes months of planning and preparation, long workdays and missed holidays, birthdays and anniversaries with loved ones. The Polar Star crew truly embodies the ethos of the Antarctic explorers who came before us — courage, sacrifice and devotion.” 

Commissioned in 1976, the Polar Star is the only operational U.S. heavy icebreaker, capable of breaking ice up to 21 feet thick. Reserved for Operation Deep Freeze each year, the ship spends the winter breaking ice near Antarctica, and when the mission is complete, returns to dry dock to conduct critical maintenance and repairs in preparation for the next Operation Deep Freeze mission.  

If a catastrophic event, such as getting stuck in the ice, were to happen to the Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic or to the Polar Star near Antarctica, the U.S. Coast Guard is left without a self-rescue capability. By contrast, Russia operates more than 50 icebreakers — several of which are nuclear-powered. 

The U.S. Coast Guard has been the sole provider of the nation’s polar icebreaking capability since 1965 and is seeking to increase its icebreaking fleet with six new polar security cutters to ensure continued national presence and access to the polar regions. 

In April, the Coast Guard awarded VT Halter Marine Inc. of Pascagoula, Mississippi, a contract for the design and construction of the Coast Guard’s lead polar security cutter, which will also be homeported in Seattle. The contract also includes options for the construction of two additional PSCs. 

“Replacing the Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet is paramount,” said Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area. “Our ability to clear a channel and allow for the resupply of the United States’ Antarctic stations is essential for continued national presence and influence on the continent.”