North Pacific Patrol Exposes Widespread Illegal Fishing

Multinational Patrol Uncovers Dozens of Violations

A Canadian-led enforcement mission has once again shown that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing remains entrenched across the North Pacific. According to a report by The Maritime Executive, the annual mission known as Operation North Pacific Guard (Op. NPG) wrapped up after more than two months of surveillance covering sea, air and satellite monitoring across the region.

The operation is coordinated by Canada in partnership with the United States, Japan and Korea. This year, Canadian fishery officers and crew serving aboard the coast guard vessel Sir Wilfrid Laurier covered more than 23,000 kilometers of North Pacific waters. During the patrol, they tracked hundreds of fishing vessels and carried out 30 high-seas boardings, which turned up 52 breaches of international fisheries rules.

What the Inspections Found

The violations documented at sea included shark finning, the use of banned gear to target sharks, and inaccurate or missing reporting of catch, bycatch and discarded species — including protected ones. Inspectors also found failures to use required seabird-protection measures during gear deployment.

Aerial surveillance added another layer of enforcement, with patrol aircraft observing 344 fishing vessels and flagging 21 additional violations. These ranged from shark finning and unlawful killing of dolphins to pollution discharge and improperly marked vessels — a marking failure that complicates identification and accountability at sea.

Beyond enforcement, officers gathered environmental samples during the mission, including water tests used to study microplastic concentrations and data supporting research into the migratory patterns of Pacific salmon and other species of concern.

Ongoing Effort Since 2019

Op. NPG has run every year since 2019 and is considered a key tool for enforcing international fisheries law on the high seas. Once violations are recorded, they are referred to the flag states of the vessels involved for investigation, a process that can result in penalties up to a full ban on fishing activity for repeat or serious offenders.

Canadian officials describe identifying regulatory gaps as one of the mission’s core goals — work credited in previous years with driving new restrictions on shark finning and salmon retention, tighter pollution controls, and improved catch-reporting standards.

David McGuinty, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, said the operation illustrates the value of international cooperation in defending ocean resources that coastal communities rely on and in enforcing the rules meant to keep those waters safe.

The mission is financed through the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, a federal program aimed at strengthening conservation and enforcement in high-risk areas for Canada’s salmon stocks, which has been allocated roughly US$294 million over five years.

What This Means for the Wider Fleet

For legitimate fishing and cargo operators transiting the North Pacific, this kind of sustained multinational enforcement is a reminder that documentation integrity is under active scrutiny far from port. The violations found — misreported catch, inadequate markings, and non-compliant gear — are exactly the kinds of gaps that surface during independent verification and survey work, whether that’s confirming cargo quantities, checking compliance markings, or auditing reporting practices against physical evidence onboard. As enforcement bodies expand satellite and aerial coverage of remote fishing grounds, vessel operators across all sectors should expect that undocumented or misreported activity is increasingly likely to be caught, not overlooked. That reinforces the broader value of third-party inspection and documentation checks as a routine part of responsible operations, rather than a response triggered only after a violation is suspected.

The results of this year’s mission also suggest that despite six years of continuous patrols, the underlying incentives driving IUU fishing — from lucrative shark fin markets to lax reporting enforcement by some flag states — have not been eliminated. That points to an ongoing need for flag states to follow through on investigations and sanctions once violations are referred to them, since enforcement at sea only carries weight if it is backed by consistent action onshore.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.