Photo By Grady Fontana | PACIFIC OCEAN — Coast Guard maritime enforcement team members board and inspect a...... read more read more
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PACIFIC OCEAN — Military Sealift Command’s dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Lewis and Clark (T-AKE 1) is currently operating off the coast of Tarawa, Republic of Kiribati, as part of her continuing participation in Exercise KOA MOANA 15-3, Oct. 27.
During KM 15-3, the potent combination of the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps serves as a beneficial partner to conduct maritime security with participating host nations from various countries in the Pacific Island Nations of Oceania.
“This is really a unique exercise in the fact that we have a Marine Corps element, a Coast Guard element, and the Navy supporting both,” said Navy Capt. Paul D. Hugill, commodore of Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadron TWO (MPSRON-2). “It is a strategic maritime partnership to have a Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard team working maritime issues.”
The USNS Lewis and Clark, which is also part of MPSRON-2, serves as the delivery platform and—for the first time—as a law enforcement vehicle during KM 15-3; and each sea service plays a pivotal role in theater security cooperation activities and event in each of the participating Pacific Island Nations of Oceania.
In KM 15-3, the role that the Marines play is in shaping and developing relationships with these island nations since the Marine Corps is a maritime force and has a lot of history in the South Pacific. During World War II, as part of the Pacific islands hopping campaign, during the “Battle of Tarawa” here on Nov. 20, 1943, the Marine Corps lost more than 1,113 souls with another 2,290 wounded.
After more than a decade of land-based wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, these types of engagements support the Marine Corps’ desire to return to its amphibious roots.
When developing relationships with the various Pacific Island Nations of Oceania, the Marine Corps will leverage on events designed to enhance senior military leader engagements with a collective interest in military-to-military relations; and to discuss key aspects of military operations, capability development, and interoperability.
So, during KM 15-3, the Marine Corps disembarks the Lewis and Clark at each port, and conducts their training with host nations military or law enforcement personnel. These events include jungle hiking, survival training, river crossing and rafting, and community outreach.
When Marine’s are on land conducting military-to-military or military-to-law enforcement engagements, the Coast Guard partners with their host nation counterpart to conduct Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) operations on board the Lewis and Clark.
KOA MOANA’S high-sea mission: Oceania Maritime Security Initiative
OMSI is a Secretary of Defense program aimed to diminish transnational illegal activity on the high seas and enhance regional security and interoperability with partner nations.
The Coast Guard is responsible for patrolling the waters around the numerous islands associated with the U.S. throughout the South Pacific region. Each of these islands has territorial waters stretching out to 12 miles from shore. Beyond that, stretching out 200 nautical miles are exclusive economic zones (EEZs), an area defined by international law that allows each nation exclusive rights to the exploration and use of marine resources.
During the KM 15-3 OMSI mission, the Coast Guard liaison officer, along with USNS Lewis and Clark crew, and host nation partners will patrol the ocean for fishing vessels operating inside the host nation EEZ.
Once the team identifies a target of interest, USNS Lewis and Clark will intercept the fishing vessel and the Coast Guard will deploy a joint boarding team made up of Coast Guard Law Enforcement Officers and host nation maritime police personnel.
The joint boarding team will then transit to the fishing vessel by a rigid-hull inflatable boat and embarks the fishing vessel where the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Officers will assist the host nation with conducting a boarding under host nation authority.
When conducting fishing vessel boardings, the host nation officers are looking for fishery-type violations and ensuring the vessels are operating within the scope of their permits.
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing has a significant negative effect on the host nation economy. The host nation officers will verify if the vessel is licensed to be operating inside their EEZ, check if they have the appropriate documentations and authorities to be there, and look at their catch to make sure that it’s legal and contains no prohibited species.
When boarding U.S. flagged vessels, the Coast Guard boarding officers are also looking for compliance with U.S. safety regulations.
Another type of boarding conducted during OMSI patrols are U.S. led boardings carried out under the authority that’s been granted to the Coast Guard by the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a 43-nation regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) that strives to create a management scheme that will ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of highly migratory fish stocks in the western and central pacific ocean (WCPO).
Each of the 43 members, participating territories, and cooperating non members agree to abide by conservation management measures (CMMs) that extend seaward of a nations territorial sea and includes the high seas of the WCPO.
The WCPFC convention area extends from 150 degrees West all the way to the East Asia seaboard and reaches from 60 degrees south, up to the Bering Sea of Alaska.
“Tuna is a highly migratory fish species and such an economic staple for many Pacific Island countries. If it’s overfished on the high seas, the fish won’t migrate in adequate numbers to the EEZs of other Pacific Island Nations,” said Coast Guard Lt. Lisa M. Hatland, OMSI liaison, U.S. Coast Guard District 14 out of Honolulu and on board the Lewis and Clark for KM 15-3. “The WCPFC RFMO was created to protect this precious commodity on the high seas where nobody has enforcement authority.”
Nations may be granted status as an inspection authority under WCPFC if they meet certain requirements established by the Commission. It allows that nation to conduct boardings on any fishing vessels belonging to the 43 participating members or cooperating non members if they are participating in fishery while on the high seas.
WCPFC boarding authority does not extend into a sovereign nation’s EEZ even though that area is still covered by the Commission.
Each inspection vessel must be registered with the Commission in order to conduct WCPFC boardings and the USNS Lewis and Clark is an authorized inspection vessel for the U.S.
“The Commission works because each member nation turns WCPFC CMMs into laws that must be adhered to for vessels flying their flag,” said Hatland. “That’s where the enforcement arm comes from, the U.S. can’t impose fines or enforcement action during WCPFC boardings; but we can relay what we find during the boarding to the flag state for them to take action on.”
USNS Lewis and Clark operates as a law-enforcement vessel
The OMSI program leverages Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness, ultimately supporting maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania.
To put the USNS Lewis and Clark in a law enforcement role, the Coast Guard and the Navy coordinate tactical control (TACON) of the vessel. Here, TACON is coordinated between Commander, Task Force-73 in Singapore, and Coast Guard District 14 in Honolulu.
“When we get into an area where we know we are going to be doing a law enforcement-type action, Coast Guard District 14 will request TACON be shifted from CTF-73. They will accept and the Coast Guard will acknowledge they have TACON, which then puts the vessel in a law enforcement role,” said Hugill.
The Navy’s role is to support the Marine Corps and Coast Guard mission.
According to Hatland, the USNS Lewis and Clark has been a great asset to do boardings from, it has most of the same assets as the Coast Guard ships: small boats, computers, and places to store weapons and ammunition.
“We operate the ship and we operate the small boat, which is the delivery platform from the ship to the vessel that’s going to be boarded,” said Hugill. “The Coast Guard does the [law enforcement] boarding and run the command and control back to their higher headquarters. There’s a lot of coordination that goes back and forth to District 14 to get permissions to move through the boarding process.”
The host nation ship riders are the law enforcement authority in their EEZ.
“We operate under their law enforcement authority,” said Hugill. “So when they go on board [a vessel to be inspected], even though the U.S. Coast Guard team is there and there are more Coast Guard personnel than there are host nation police, they’re still in the lead. It’s their waters and it’s their mission and we’re here to support them. They’re the ones that identify violations to pursue.”
Exercise KM 15-3 is a four-month international exercise with participants from the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and host nation participants from various countries in the Pacific Island Nations of Oceania. The exercise commenced in Tahiti, and continued into Fiji. After Tarawa, the Lewis and Clark will voyage to Vanuatu before finalizing TSC events in Timor Leste. The Lewis and Clark is scheduled to return to its homeport in early December.
COMPSRON 2, currently embarked in USNS Lewis and Clark and operating in the Southern Eastern Pacific, maintains tactical control of the 10 ships that are forward deployed to Diego Garcia and carrying afloat prepositioned U.S. military cargo for the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Air Force. The squadron’s mission is to enable the force from the sea by providing swift and effective transportation of vital equipment and supplies for designated operations.
MSC operates approximately 115 non-combatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized missions, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners.
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.27.2015 05:59 |
| Story ID: | 180016 |
| Location: | PACIFIC OCEAN |
| Web Views: | 540 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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