A Canada-U.S. aerial patrol identified 10 vessels suspected of illegally fishing with drift nets in the international waters of the North Pacific in September, Canadian Forces officials say.

Fisheries officers from Canada and the United States spent two weeks this month aboard a Canadian Forces aircraft, scouring millions of square kilometres over the North Pacific, Maj. Chris Bard told CBC News.

A Canadian Forces plane captured images of 90 international fishing vessels suspected of breaking a 15-year-old United Nations ban on using drift nets.
(Canadian Forces)

Cameras on the Aurora long-range patrol plane captured images of 90 fishing vessels, which fit the profile of ships that routinely break the 15-year-old United Nations ban on using drift nets in international waters, said Bard, the commander for the high-seas drift-net patrol.

Ten of those vessels were observed "either rigged for or engaging in high seas drift-net fishing," public affairs officer Capt. Jeff Manney of the Canadian Air Reserve told CBCNews.ca. One was boarded and escorted to a Chinese frigate, he said.

Bard said it was obvious to him what was going on after the Aurora long-range aircraft swooped down on the 10 ships.

"Once we made our presence known, they all became very evasive — tried to confuse us by manoeuvring, making our photo passes very difficult," he said.

When the plane began monitoring one Chinese vessel, the active radio chatter they had been listening to suddenly became "dead silent," Bard said.

"As soon as we showed up, the radios became dead silent. The only thing we heard — or our translator heard — was, 'We're getting out of here.' "

The Chinese fishing vessel Lu Rong Yu was boarded by a United States Coast Guard cutter and found to have illegal fish in the hold.
(Canadian Forces)

The Aurora crew found that in some cases, ships could be spotted dumping material overboard and trying to cover markings that identified their boats, Bard said.

"These vessels typically sail with few or obscured markings, so without actually boarding them, it's difficult to ascertain their nationality," Manney said. "These vessels target species such as salmon, albacore and neon flying squid."

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly put a moratorium on drift-net fishing, because the mesh nets, as long as 50 kilometres, indiscriminately trap a wide range of fish species, marine mammals and sea turtles.

'The radios became dead silent. The only thing we heard … was, "We're getting out of here." ' —Maj. Chris Bard

The Chinese government takes the problem seriously, and has its own enforcement officers on board U.S. Coast Guard ships, said Ted McDormand, an ocean law expert from the University of Victoria.

"China's had this memorandum with the United States since 1993, which came right after the General Assembly resolution on the moratorium, so China's stepped up here to be a reasonably responsible fishing state," he said.

Using the Canadian surveillance, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a Chinese trawler, Lu Rong Yu, and boarded it. It was found to have illegal fish in the hold and was turned over to Chinese authorities.

International surveillance of the waters is a collaborative effort with Canada, Russia, Japan, Korea and the U.S. The seasonal surveillance mission over the North Pacific has been conducted every year since the 1992 UN moratorium.