China Eyes 4 Unsecured U.S. Marine National Monuments In The Pacific

In the deep Pacific Ocean, America’s four enormous Marine National Monuments are under siege by China. More than just ecological gems, the sprawling refuges are also underappreciated national security resources, offering quiet hiding places for America’s missile submarines, out-of-the-way testing-grounds, and training areas for various U.S. Defense Department assets.

In total, America’s deep-ocean National Monuments lay claim to almost 1.2 million square miles of pristine ocean, and China, as it pours billions of dollars into seizing much of the 1.4 million square mile South China Sea, is already looking to grab other unsecured Pacific territories, positioning to compromise the sanctity of American’s big Marine preserves. To prevent international encroachment, poaching and other sovereignty-degrading insults, America’s fragile Pacific frontiers need far more dedicated wildlife management and enforcement resources.

The current marine monument managers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with NOAA, are insufficiently resourced to manage over a million square miles of strategic ocean. Aside from bulking up their small law enforcement ranks, both agencies can use more funding for timely intelligence support, and procuring drones, helicopters, and some larger enforcement craft to better detect, track, document and then intercept and prosecute illegal activity in the deep Pacific.

For some Chinese observers, the resource differential has got to be galling. To secure the South China Sea, China needs an enormous, militarized fishing fleet, a massive maritime militia, a large Coast Guard and a beefy naval contingent. In contrast, the U.S. has quietly tightened sovereignty over an equivalent area, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has no large patrol vessels of their own, relying on an already-overstretched U.S. Coast Guard. It is enviable, but it will not stand up if contested.

The Department of Interior needs to get out there and into the game of enforcing U.S. law and American sovereignty at the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, as well as at the Marianas Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, and Rose Atoll National Monuments. It is time for the Department of Interior to contribute to securing America’s natural frontiers.

The pressure is on. American Samoa has long noted the illegal poaching of “clams, sharks and fish by local and foreign fishermen” at Rose Atoll. Last year, Hawaii commercial fishermen started complaining of Chinese vessels near the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, accusing them of making aggressive maneuvers and “charging” local boats. But America’s presence is too limited to even understand how and who might be lurking about in America’s protected waters.

America has got to do something to make the “National Monument” designation mean something. Without it, the marine refuges will be under constant assault by the Chinese fishing fleet and a range of other sovereignty-degrading influencers—including whipped-up “astroturf” anti-public-lands sentiment manifested by the likes of a scandal-plagued previous Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke. To make the monuments meaningful, the Department of Interior must contribute to deep-sea surveillance in the Pacific by developing a specialized anti-illegal fishing unit, ready to supplement ongoing management of strategically critical American territory in the Pacific.

An extra contributor would be welcome. With the U.S. Coast Guard already overwhelmed by a bewildering range of eleven different statutory missions, America can use a specialized deep-sea force dedicated to maintaining order in and around America’s remote national monuments.

For similarly under-patrolled and under-monitored sovereign areas in the Pacific, the Australian government has been donating a simple Austal-built Guardian-class patrol boat to Pacific nations that struggle to protect their exclusive economic zones, limiting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Built to replace older craft donated to Pacific Forum nations, over twenty simple patrol craft are entering service throughout Oceania.

These austere patrol craft may not be a good match for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but an endurance-and-science oriented Fast Response Cutter variant might be a particularly interesting option, and, if coupled with a larger, aviation-capable station ship—potentially some sort of simple, off-the-shelf 3600-ton multirole auxiliary vessel— the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could be well-positioned to track and deter far flung illegal fishing fleets and other sovereignty-degrading activities at the fringes of America’s far flung marine national monuments. Deployment of a simple pursuit vessel and UAV team operating out of Wake, Midway and Johnson Atolls would do a lot to change behavior out in the Oceans, fast. At a minimum, the U.S. Government would have viable data on illegal fishing, and plenty of footage to make strong enforcement cases.

The Department of Interior’s anti-poaching fleet would be an ideal backstop for the Coast Guard, as that busy service pushes its fleet of Fast Response Cutters far out into the Pacific, and prepares to deploy an international engagement-oriented tender out into Pacific waters.

By taking some of the load off of the already-stressed and overtasked Coast Guard, this Department of Interior anti-illegal fishing unit could begin to focus in on Pacific poaching and targeting international trade in endangered species—activities that even a hard-bitten U.S. Fish and Wildlife game warden from deep woods Tennessee can understand.