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TAKE
NOTE: AB Jet Slater marks time on the flying bridge of patrol boat HMAS Ipswich.
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Photos:
ABPH Helen FrankPhotos |
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ROUND
UP: HMAS Ipswich’s RHIB returns from landing a boarding party on a foreign
fishing trawler apprehended inside the Australia Fishing Zone. |
Volume
49, No. 6, April 20, 2006
By
Michael Brooke
Armidale
and Fremantle Class patrol boats spearheaded the Navy’s contribution to a
Joint Offshore Protection Command operation that targeted border incursions by
foreign fishing vessels (FFV) off Australia’s northern coastline recently.
A
two-week operation conducted off Cape Wessel in the Northern Territory, called
Operation Breakwater, netted 23 suspected illegal FFVs and 197 suspected illegal
fishermen.
Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson said Operation Breakwater
trialed new ways of combating illegal fishing and was a highly successful campaign.
“This
operation demonstrates the effectiveness of the Australian Government’s cross-agency
approach to dealing with illegal fishers, its border protection and our sovereignty,”
Dr Nelson said.
HMA Ships Armidale (LCDR J.C. Hunter), Fremantle (LCDR
R.J Scott), and Ipswich (LCDR D.G. Grogan), and the heavy landing craft Balikpapan
(LEUT B. Learoyd) spearheaded the Navy’s contribution to Operation Breakwater.
The
Navy vessels were supported by Customs patrol ship Oceanic Viking, Customs patrol
boats Corio Bay and Roebuck Bay as well as Coastwatch and Royal Australian Air
Force surveillance aircraft.
Dr Nelson said Operation Breakwater explored
new options to improve the fight against illegal fishing in Australian waters.
For
the first time, the Australian Customs Service coordinated the use of commercially
chartered tug-boats to bring apprehended illegal fishing boats into port.
Customs
also used the Oceanic Viking to temporarily accommodate suspected illegal fishermen
before they were brought back to port. These arrangements enabled Customs and
Naval vessels to spend more time at sea patrolling our waters, rather than towing
suspected illegal fishing boats into port or transporting suspected illegal fishers.
In
addition to the 23 vessels apprehended during Operation Breakwater, 81 boats have
already been apprehended in Australia’s northern waters since January.
RADM
Davyd Thomas said the Navy’s patrol boats played an important role in the
joint effort to combat the fleet of FFVs operating illegally in Australian territorial
waters.
“The Navy has been doing a pretty good job against the FFVs
in recent times, and it’s a success story that’s only going to get better
when more state-of-the-art Armidale Class patrol boats are commissioned,”
he said recently.
Operation Breakwater follows other major operations, codenamed
Clearwater, that were mounted off northern and north-western Australia in 2005.
It was run out of HQ Northern Command in Darwin where officers from several
Government agencies worked together with Defence personnel to coordinate the operation’s
success.
.
