Three vessels were apprehended and is under investigation, after being rounded up during a joint maritime surveillance operation called the 2007 Operation Kurukuru, that ended today.

The annual operation that focuses on detecting illegal maritime activities such as illegal fishing, contraband smuggling and people trafficking in the South Pacific, began on August 20.

Running for two weeks the $11 million Operation Kurukuru involved over 300 participants in eight South Pacific countries.

At a press briefing in Nuku'alofa today, Tonga's Navy Commander Sione Fifita said that the operation covered an area of 10.5 million square kilometers of the Exclusive Zones of Tonga, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

He said a total of 166 vessels were examined using the regional Vessel Monitoring System. This system is being installed in every commercial fishing boat when licensed and it automatically provides the location and activity of a particular vessel. Of these, 24 were suspected of illegal activities, six required further investigation and three were apprehended and escorted back to port. "The majority of vessels appeared to be doing the right thing but there is still a significant number who have disregard for the rules," said the Commander.

Maritime Surveillance

Bill Triffit, the Maritime Surveillance Adviser based at Touliki, said they could not release the origin of the three vessels detained due to ongoing investigation, but he identified them to be one yacht and two fishing boats.

He said that the yacht posed a breach of quarantine and the two fishing boats were believed to be breaching their licenses but that was still under investigation.

TDS

The organizers said this operation has been a success because it involved most of the Pacific islands, with new participants this year including the Cook Islands, Kiribati and the United States.

The operation Kurukuru 2007 was hosted by the Tonga Defence Services, and supported by eight patrol boats from Cook Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and one from the US Coast Guard, with four maritime patrol aircraft from New Zealand, France and the US. Technical support was provided from the Forum Fisheries Agency in Honiara.

Patrol boats from each country did surveillance in the areas nearest to them. The patrol and aircraft support provided by the United States was based in American Samoa, and the French were based in Kiribati and covered the Cook Islands and other areas. New Zealand air support flew and covered the area around Vanuatu and Tonga.

The total cost of the two week operation was $11 million pa'anga funded by USA, France, NZ and Australia.

Under the Australian Defence Cooperation Program eight participants, were brought to Tonga for the operation and fuel was provided for patrol boats in their own countries.

Fiji did not participate because since the coup last year, Australia has pulled out all financial aid to the country.

Commander Fifita said that Operation Kurukuru's central headquarter was based at the TDS and during the operation it was manned by 22 representatives from participating countries.

It is the fourth in an annual series of activities that began as an exercise in 2004 hosted by Fiji, and Tonga began hosting it last year. It is an ongoing operation but the host country for 2008 had not been confirmed, he said.