ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Rear Adm. Christopher Colvin, commander of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District, is hosting the bi-annual commanders meeting with Russia Rear Adm. Sergey Surin, first deputy of the Northeast Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia, in Anchorage this week to review joint operations and develop a plan of joint action for the future.
Ongoing and future cooperative efforts against illegal fishing in the Bering Sea and North Pacific (Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing), the exchanging of information to support mutually supported maritime law enforcement activities and future activities in the Arctic will be discussed throughout the week.
The Seventeenth Coast Guard District and the Northeast Border Directorate routinely coordinate international fisheries enforcement operations, responses to distresses at sea and law enforcement operations along the U.S./Russian Maritime Boundary Line in the Bering Sea.
“We share a common sea and are respectively obligated to protect and the sustain the extraordinary maritime resources in the Bering Sea and Northern Pacific.” said Rear Adm. Christopher Colvin, 17th District Commander, “We are much more effective working together than working independently when addressing maritime safety and security, search and rescue and fisheries issues in this vast region.”
Similar meetings have been held since 1995 alternating between Alaska and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. The last meeting in the United States was held in Sitka, Alaska, April 12-16, 2009.
