Operation Island Chief: HMS Spey joins mission to protect Pacific fishing stocks

Royal Navy offshore patrol ship HMS Spey has been helping to protect fishing stocks in the Pacific.

Spey spent 10 days on Operation Island Chief - one of four missions every year focusing on detecting, reporting, apprehending, and deterring illegal fishing.

It is estimated that illegal fishing costs the Pacific nations more than US$150m (£127m) annually in lost revenue.

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Seventeen nations monitor activities across more than 18.4 million square kilometres of the Pacific - 30 times larger than the North Sea and rich with tuna.

The area covers waters in the economic exclusion zones of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu among others.

It is the first time the Royal Navy has contributed to the operation, which is part of the five-year Pacific mission by sister patrol ships HMS Spey and Tamar.

HMS Tamar has been working with the US Navy, Australia and Japan delivering medical and infrastructure support to remote island communities around the Philippines under the Pacific Partnership mission.

Spey has been operating further south, starting along the northern coast of Australia, before moving east to Fiji and its surrounding islands.

At the beginning of the month the vessel became the first British warship in nearly a century to visit Palau - the fourth-smallest country on the planet during an international goodwill mission.