SOLOMON ISLANDS — The U.S. Coast Guard has responded to a request from the Solomon Islands to help patrol that country’s exclusive economic zone while maintenance was being conducted on the Royal Solomon Islands Police Vessel Taro.
The Fast Response Cutter Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) was dispatched on short notice to provide operational presence by conducting maritime surveillance to deter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the northern Solomon Islands.
The 154-foot Myrtle Hazard was already deployed on an expeditionary patrol in support of Operation Blue Pacific, where the is cutter was protecting against IUU fishing in the EEZs of five different Pacific Island Countries and the high seas.
According to a Coast Guard statement, IUU fishing has replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat and has the potential to jeopardize the efforts of PICs to conserve fish stocks, an important renewable resource in the region.
The Solomon Islands has a population of 652,000 people, and encompasses more than 900 islands. The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. It has an EEZ of more than 600,000 square miles. Like its neighbors in Oceania, the country is reliant of fisheries for sustenance and income.
Myrtle Hazard’s mission followed coordination between the Coast Guard, the Solomon Islands’ commissioner of police, assistant commissioner of police, and the deputy commissioner for national security and operations.
The Coast Guard’s assistance is significant because the government of the Solomon Islands recently signed an agreement on policing cooperation with China and is reportedly in the process of concluding a security agreement that could allow an ongoing Chinese military and naval presence. Such an agreement has been characterized by some as “destabilizing” for the region.
According to the Washington Post, China is trying to formalize agreements with other Pacific island countries on policing, cybersecurity, maritime surveillance, fishing rights and the creation of a free-trade area.
“We need to respond to this because this is China seeking to increase its influence in the region of the world where Australia has been the security partner of choice since the Second World War,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo called the deal a “smokescreen” hiding a Chinese attempt to “acquire access and control of our region.”
“Through Operation Blue Pacific, the United States Coast Guard looks for opportunities to assist our regional partners with maritime governance and security,” said Capt. Craig O’Brien, chief of response of Coast Guard District 14. “Working closely with the Forum Fisheries Agency and the government of Solomon Islands, it was a privilege for the United States Coast Guard to assist the Solomon Islands while their police vessel was down for maintenance.”
With the controversy over China’s engagement with the Pacific nations, and the Solomon Islands in particular, the request from the Solomon Islands to the U.S. Coast Guard is especially meaningful.
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