The Pacific region is currently undergoing the largest maritime security operation to date, with Samoa at the forefront, as the ocean serves as both the lifeblood and the boundary of the nation. An officer for Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Reupena Vaa) boarded a French aircraft at Faleolo Airport to take part in Operation Tui Moana 2026, which is part of the regional Forum Fisheries Agency’s extensive network of maritime surveillance missions to eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the Pacific Ocean. The operation will be operationalized during the period of May 4–22 and involve 10 Pacific Island nations, with four Pacific Quad nations (Australia, New Zealand, France, and the USA) supporting it.
In addition to being part of a routine aerial capability mission, Reupena conducted surveillance operations from a French Navy Falcon 200 Gardian aircraft that had deployed from Apia. The missions will provide Reupena with first-hand experience of the surveillance and enforcement capabilities that are being utilized to monitor and enforce the salmon species of fish through Samoa’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is a large area of ocean located in the Pacific Ocean that provides Samoa with fisheries revenue, food security, and sovereignty over the EEZ. In addition, two Fijian officers conducted five days of operational missions with the French Navy ship Bougainville. As such, the nations are increasingly forming partnerships to share capabilities, vessels, and aircraft to better enhance their collective ability to conduct maritime enforcement.
The operation reflects the increasing consensus in the Pacific that fisheries protection is no longer simply about catching poachers; it is about protecting an economic asset that is of vital importance to the island nations. The Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) is focused on its monitoring, control, and surveillance activities to reduce IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing, which it estimates has cost the Pacific Islands several hundred million dollars recently. This means that every patrol sortie and observer position is part of a much larger effort to protect one of the most important marine renewable resources in the region.
The role that France played in this operation also exemplified the changing security environment in the Pacific region, where illegal fishing increasingly overlaps with other maritime threats, such as drug trafficking and pollution. The cooperation between Wallis and Futuna, which shares a maritime border with Samoa, provided an additional level of strategic importance to the cooperation and illustrated how much stronger regional partnerships are becoming as the primary source of protection for the Pacific Islands at sea.
While Operation Tui Moana was completed in May 2020, its message continues to resonate through the waves—the Pacific Islands are not waiting for other countries to protect their waters; they are developing their own ability to monitor their waters through individual countries and through air and maritime assets.
