U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry Returns Following 46-Day Anti-IUU Patrol
The crew of Coast Guard cutter Oliver Berry returned to its homeport of Honolulu in late September after completing a 46-day patrol in Oceania.
The crew’s efforts included enhancing maritime domain awareness, combatting illegal fishing activities across Oceania and strengthening relationships with regional partners. During the patrol, the cutter’s crew enacted two bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements with Fiji and Samoa.
The cutter departed Coast Guard Base Honolulu in August and traveled more than 7,600 nautical miles from the Hawaiian Islands to the west coast of Fiji. The patrol was in support of Operation Blue Pacific, a Coast Guard District 14 mission promoting security, safety, sovereignty and economic prosperity in Oceania.
While in Fiji, the crew exercised the shiprider provision of the bilateral maritime law enforcement agreement by hosting local law enforcement officers from the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, Ministry of Fisheries and the Navy, which conducted boardings in Fiji’s archipelagic waters.
The shipriders patrolled both the east and northwestern side of Fiji near the Yasawa Island chain group. While aboard the Oliver Berry, the shipriders conducted 35 boardings, including on commercial fishing vessels, allowing Fiji to monitor and protect their archipelagic waters from potential illicit maritime activity.
Following operations in Fiji, the cutter patrolled in the vicinity of Samoa, exercising an enhanced bilateral maritime law enforcement agreement for the first time to detect and monitor vessels actively engaged in fishing in their Exclusive Economic Zone.
Additionally, the Oliver Berry conducted two Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission boardings in the Convention Area to identify and counter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity.
Commissioned in 2017, the Oliver Berry is one of six Fast Response Cutters stationed across the Coast Guard’s 14th District. She provides year-round search and rescue and maritime law enforcement coverage across a 15-million square mile area of responsibility.
