Table of Contents Introduction Past and Current Offshore Fisheries Challenges Current Constabulary Force Structure Options for Enhancing Canadian Offshore Fisheries Enforcement Conclusion End Notes About the Author Canadian Global Affairs Institute Introduction As climate change stresses global fisheries, the world’s oceans are becoming more contested at the same time that coastal states have greater jurisdiction over offshore resources. In the coming decades, Canada’s maritime agencies need to be prepared for greater possibilities of contestation at sea between its enforcement assets and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing by foreign vessels. As the federal agency with the largest number of seagoing vessels, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has a potentially significant role to play. This article first conducts a brief review of the past and future IUU fishing challenges Canada faces in waters under its legal jurisdiction. It then examines the current and forthcoming force structure of the CCG’s offshore patrol fleet as part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) Conservation & Protection program. Next, it discusses possible options for enhancing Canada’s offshore constabulary capabilities in the coming years. It recommends the development of a ship-borne helicopter-based fisheries enforcement capability to maximize the effectiveness of its forthcoming Arctic and offshore patrol vessels. Canadian fisheries enforcement agents operating on aircraft and foreign vessels as part of international co-operative efforts will be outside the scope of this article, as are satellite-based methods for identifying IUU violations.1 TOP OF PAGE Past and Current Offshore Fisheries Challenges With 123 vessels, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) is the federal government’s largest maritime organization in terms of hull numbers.2 Unlike the coast guards of many other countries, its members are responsible for ensuring the safe use of Canadian waters by seafarers rather than enforcing laws through the threat and use of low-level force. It is predominantly a safety, rather than security (narrowly defined), organization. CCG members do not have law enforcement authority and cannot carry out arrests. For these functions, non-CCG members such as fisheries officers (DFO) or Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers are required. Nonetheless, the CCG provides maritime monitoring services while CCG vessels provide the floating platforms necessary to carry those officials as they conduct their missions at sea.3 Perhaps the most significant of these missions in the coming decades will be offshore fisheries enforcement. As demand for saltwater protein by populous coastal states like China increases over the coming years and their local waters are depleted, there will be more distant-water fishing vessels seeking out new sources of seafood. This has already involved the use of lethal force by other coastal states’ coast guards and navies around the world as they have tried to halt IUU fishing in recent years, notably off South America’s coasts.4 Thus, although much popular attention is focused on the CCG’s icebreakers and their role in Canadian Arctic sovereignty, an oft-overlooked area is the CCG’s role in supporting Canada’s control of its fisheries at the edges of its 200-nautical-mile (NM) exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Canada also has a role in protecting fisheries beyond the 200-NM EEZ, thanks to its membership in the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), which sets out quotas and other limits on fishing in the high seas (beyond 200 NM) off Canada’s Atlantic coast. Although Canadian offshore fisheries enforcement actions have not been in the spotlight in recent years, they were a regular feature of the DFO’s fisheries patrol fleet prior to their 1995-1997 amalgamation with the CCG.5
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