Sus Dolphin Harvesting and Shark Finning Found During North Pacific Patrol 💀🐬

The Deets

Okay, so listen up, fam. There's this thing called Operation Pacific Guard, right? It's like, a two-month patrol mission in the North Pacific led by the Canadian Coast Guard. They teamed up with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the RCMP, and a bunch of other countries to keep an eye on things outside Canada's 200-mile zone.

And what they found? Bruh, it's kinda messed up. They caught a Taiwanese fishing vessel straight up harpooning dolphins to use as bait for sharks. Like, what?! The captain got arrested, so that's a W for the good guys, I guess. But wait, there's more.

Apparently, they also found vessels illegally keeping Pacific salmon, even though there's a new ban on that. And get this – they found hundreds of shark fins. HUNDREDS. Some vessels were also sus about reporting their catches, especially salmon. And to top it all off, some crews were trying to obstruct the investigation and destroy evidence. Sketchy AF.

But it wasn't all bad news. This patrol was a major international collab. They had fisheries officers from Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the US all on one ship. It's the first time that's ever happened, which is kinda poggers.

They patrolled over 17,000 kilometers of ocean, kept tabs on hundreds of fishing vessels, did 41 inspections, and talked to over 1,000 crew members. All that work led to 39 violations of international fisheries rules. Canada's now working with the countries where these ships are registered to investigate, fine them, and maybe even hit them with sanctions.

They even used DFO drones and long-range aircraft to spot ships and catch them dumping stuff illegally. Talk about high-tech detective work! And it seems like overall, compliance with fishing regulations is getting better, which is a W for the environment.

Canadian officers can't seize illegal catches themselves, but they're dropping receipts to international orgs.