Word: coastwatchers
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Dates: during 2004-2004
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...Even at this early stage, Coastwatch officers, such as Steve "Loopy" Guerin, have a fair idea what they'll find. "From the standard of dress and the type of boat, we can usually tell where the crew are from." A typical FFV has several options for escape. Depending on its location, it can scoot back to the high seas or to the P.N.G. side of the fishing zone, or at least ditch its catch and equipment. In this case, the 7-m wooden fishing boat (designated a "Type 3") is too far inside Australian waters to flee. Instead, the Customs...
...Botany Bay drops anchor a nautical mile from the Duncan Islands. Coastwatch has called the ACV with an update of the FFV's location. Because radar can't detect small boats, the binoculars are out on the bridge. The FFV is spotted! There's a rush of excitement and purpose as the four officers who make up a boarding party assemble on the aft deck and load up their kits: life jackets, 9-mm Glock semi-automatics, telescopic batons, capsicum spray, handcuffs, assorted tools, water supply, radio. The sailors climb aboard an outboard-powered tender which is lowered into...
...lines, three floats and a compass. A report is prepared and faxed to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority; Cummins is recommending that the boat, Merauke-based Buna Perawan, be apprehended and towed back to Thursday Island. But first Cummins wants the eight fishermen to retrieve their buoys and lines; Coastwatch has located the gear 9 nautical mi. away. "The lines are an environmental hazard," says Geoff Weir, a member of the boarding party. Typically, sharks caught on these lines are stripped of their fins and thrown back into the water alive. "Not only is the harvesting method wasteful," says Weir...
...tropical sky, night falls almost instantly, and the navigational instruments now cast a greenish glow around the skipper. A fixed-wing "Islander" heads back to base at Horn Island as a Coastwatch helicopter (or "helo") code-named Lima 51 flies in to assist in the search; a forward-looking infra-red (flir) detection system in the helo's nose checks out the hides that have been cut in the mangroves around the island. No luck. Returning to base, the helo calls in to report that it's clocked a vessel 10 nautical mi. away, at 108 degrees. There's restrained...
...Homer for the next watch; before Radon can bunk down, he must fill out the log and finish the chart. By the time he wakes, Hervey Bay will be back where it was 24 hours ago, off Dalrymple, waiting for a Papuan drug trafficker. It's Sunday morning and Coastwatch planes are in the bright skies over the Strait, Fitzy's listening to Macca on the radio and the maritime gatekeepers are, as always, open for business...