U.S. Fishing for Defense Tech To Protect International Waters.

• Author: Roaten, Meredith

The Coast Guard and Navy are exploring new technology and partnerships to protect fisheries from Chinese theft.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing is a growing problem across the world, but particularly in the seas traversed by Chinese ships, according to officials.

Advanced military technologies such as high-resolution radars, spy satellites and data-sharing software is needed to tackle the problem, experts said.

While Beijing has publicly talked about cracking down on illegal fishing, the nation has one of the worst records of state-sponsored fishing crimes in international waters, said Whitley Saumweber, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Stephenson Ocean Security Project.

China is "obviously high on the list... when talking about state-sponsored IUU and the way that they use it as both a tool for... economic purposes, but also increasingly for the purposes of influencing bilateral relationships," Saumweber said during the CSIS Ocean Security Forum 2021 in December.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz pointed to vessels carrying Chinese flags that have been spotted off the coasts of countries in South America. More dialogue is needed with Beijing to ensure the government's rhetoric around tackling illegal fishing matches its actions.

"This is the space where maybe we can shape those behaviors and show by demonstrated action what is responsible flag state behavior," Schultz said.

While China has said officials will crack down on illegal activity, it is still rated the No. 1 country in the world for illegal fishing, according to a report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a nonprofit organization.

There is a "persistent demand" for more collaboration between the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, such as adaptive force packaging, to counter China, Schultz noted. Adaptive force packaging incorporates transferable crew and equipment modules for more distributed forces.

"Who better than maybe the United States Coast Guard--who's a recognized enforcer of modern maritime free and open ocean--to go over there and say, 'Not so fast,'" Schultz said.

While the Navy has a lot on its plate, the service is taking the national security issue seriously, he said.

"We will match some Coast Guard capacity to their availability, the availability they make of naval platforms," he said. "We can do a lot of good things together."

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