34 commercial fishing vessels were boarded and 36 breaches were detected during the inspections in the south-west Pacific since the operation began in June.
The operation, sponsored by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, saw boarding teams – comprised of crew from the Royal New Zealand Navy’s offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Otago and compliance officers from MPI and Pacific Islands countries – conducting 34 inspections during patrols in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Fiji, Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu.
