Inmarsat C Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) devices have now reached ‘end of life’. Twenty-nine per cent of the Commonwealth fleet are still relying on Inmarsat C devices to meet VMS obligations and need to take immediate action to replace the device. With only sixty days to go before Inmarsat C VMS devices must be replaced, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) urges operators to replace the devices, as soon as practicable, and before 22 March 2024. 

Operation LEEDSTRUM is an Australian Border Force (ABF) contribution supporting a whole-of-Government campaign to combat illegal foreign fishing in and around the Kimberley Marine Park (KMP) in Western Australia. On 10 and 12 December 2023, Maritime Border Command (MBC) in partnership with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) intercepted two Indonesian vessels fishing illegally in waters within the KMP. Both fishing vessels were seized and destroyed at sea. The nine Indonesian crew were detained and conveyed to Darwin.

In November 2023, a three-tonne ghost net was removed from the waters surrounding the remote Wessel Islands, off the cost of the Northern Territory, in a joint operation by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and Parks Australia. The ghost net was retrieved by Groote Holdings Aboriginal Corporation’s vessel, Centaur II, under contract to AFMA with funding support from Parks Australia’s Ghost Nets Initiative. The vessel then returned to Darwin, where AFMA arranged for disposal of the ghost net in accordance with Australian biosecurity requirements.

Inmarsat C Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) devices have now reached ‘end of life’. Thirty-two per cent of the Commonwealth fleet are still relying on Inmarsat C devices to meet VMS obligations and need to take immediate action to replace the device. With only fifty-seven days to go before Inmarsat C VMS devices must be replaced, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) urges operators to replace the devices, as soon as practicable, and before 22 March 2024. 

In January, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) delivered a monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) capacity building workshop in Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodia, under the Combating IUU Fishing and Promoting Sustainable Fisheries in Southeast Asia Program (SEA IUU Fishing program).  Twenty fisheries officers and staff from the Cambodian Fisheries Administration (FiA) participated in the three-day workshop with AFMA fisheries officers, who shared MCS practical and operational knowledge about vessel monitoring systems (VMS). 

Inmarsat C Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) devices have now reached ‘end of life’.Twenty-eight per cent of the Commonwealth fleet are still relying on Inmarsat C devices to meet VMS obligations and need to take immediate action to replace the device.With only seven weeks to go before Inmarsat C VMS devices must be replaced, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) urges operators to replace the devices, as soon as practicable, and before 22 March 2024. 

Inmarsat C Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) devices have now reached ‘end of life’.Thirty-eight per cent of active vessels in the Commonwealth fleet are still relying on Inmarsat C devices to meet VMS obligations and need to take immediate action to replace the device.With only six weeks to go before Inmarsat C VMS devices must be replaced, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) urges operators to replace the devices, as soon as practicable, and before 22 March 2024. 

Operation LEEDSTRUM continues to combat illegal fishing in Western Australian waters.