Fisheries and Oceans Canada Air Surveillance Program

 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is responsible for the monitoring, control and surveillance of Canada's fisheries waters as well as certain international areas, such as the Northwest Atlantic Fishery Organization Regulatory Area.

 

DFO's air surveillance program provides the capability to:

• Monitor domestic and foreign vessel activities
• Detect fishing violations
• Survey the water for pollution and
• Monitor the environment

Partnerships:

DFO works in partnership with the Department of National Defence (DND) on air surveillance. DND provides DFO with an annual allocation of aircraft surveillance hours. In return, DFO's surveillance patrol data is provided to DND for use in their maritime intelligence systems and by other departments and agencies in the security community.

• 400 hours are flown in the Atlantic region each year by an Aurora aircraft.
• 180 hours are provided for the Pacific Coast and are used for high seas drift net patrols in the North Pacific Ocean.

Additional surveillance services are provided through a contract arrangement with Provincial Airlines Limited. It supplies three specially modified and equipped Beechcraft King Air B200, ground support and other related services.
The aircraft are equipped with a full suite of surveillance equipment including:

• A 200 mile, 360° search radar
• Forward looking infrared (FLIR)
• Tele-photo video cameras, a night time illumination system, and fully integrated data management systems.

Under the contract with Provincial Airlines Ltd., approximately 4800 surveillance hours are flown annually, with about 2000 hours dedicated specifically to the NAFO Regulatory Area (Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap).

Two aircraft are normally stationed in St. John's, NL; one of which is repositioned to the Pacific Coast for four to five months during the summer. The third aircraft is stationed in Halifax year-round.

Satellite Surveillance:

In 2008 DFO launched a pilot project using satellite imagery from Radarsat-2, a Canadian-owned space satellite that detected and photographed fishing vessels operating in the North Pacific. The project, offered with DND assistance through project Polar Epsilon, showed promising results in its ability to alert DFO of suspicious fishing activity – which was then investigated through fly-over inspection. Satellite surveillance may in future years become an increasingly important part of DFO’s enforcement arsenal.