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SEATTLE - A video podcast description of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum is available here.
SEATTLE - The U.S. Coast Guard and its counterparts from Canada, China, Japan, Korea and Russia will meet in a forum this week to discuss topics related to drug trafficking, maritime security, fisheries enforcement and illegal migration as part of the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum Experts Meeting.
The North Pacific Coast Guard Forum was initiated in 2000 as a venue to foster cooperation through the sharing of information between the major countries bordering the North Pacific Ocean.
Agencies from the six countries meet semiannually. The first session, called the experts meeting, is generally held in the spring. Here, the groundwork is done on ideas and recommendations that will be presented to each country's civil maritime leaders in the fall.
"The North Pacific Ocean is such a large body of water that it's impossible for one country to patrol and oversee that entire domain," said Capt. Robert Day, Deputy Commander of Maintenance and Logistics Command Pacific. "The North Pacific Coast Guard Forum fosters a coordinated and collaborated effort, and I think everybody that's involved sees the benefits achieved by our work."
The U.S. Coast Guard's involvement in the forum improves cooperation with the partner services throughout the region. By sharing practices and capabilities among its partners, the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum enables the Pacific Rim communities to address large-scale maritime challenges. It also helps the Coast Guard perform missions that it historically had to do unilaterally.
The North Pacific Coast Guard Forum has achieved clear successes in the areas of combined operations and fisheries law enforcement. The Coast Guard regularly contributes a ship to participate in the annual summer combined operations with its forum partners. In 2007, the Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell, in cooperation with the Japanese, Russian, Canadian and Chinese governments, seized five vessels engaged in illegal high-seas driftnet fishing. These cooperative successes have managed to have a global impact and have made the Pacific forum a model for the newly developed North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum.
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