A Coast Guard Cutter Kukui boarding team comprised of Coast Guardsmen and a Cook Islands official prepare to inspect a fishing vessel operating within an exclusive economic zone in the Pacific Ocean during operation Kuru Kuru, Nov. 12. The crew of the Kukui participated in Operation Kuru Kuru, a multinational operation orchestrated by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency. The operation was conducted in cooperation with 18 countries across the Pacific. This operation was to further enhance U.S. and international efforts to protect the ecologically and economically valuable fish stocks of the Pacific. Their mission was to conduct maritime surveillance operations to detect, deter, and
eliminate activities such as illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing and other transnational crimes.