The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Harriet Lane returned to its Pearl Harbor homeport on April 9 after the inaugural Operation Blue Pacific patrol in Oceania.
During the 70 plus-day deployment, the Harriet Lane and crew partnered with allies and several Pacific Island countries from January to April, including the countries of Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Marshall Islands.
The focus, according to the Coast Gard, was on advising and sharing best practices, along with bolstering its’ partners’ capabilities to promote and model good maritime governance in the region.
The Harriet Lane expanded U.S. Coast Guard presence in Oceania alongside Pacific Island countries exercising bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements with shiprider provisions to strengthen maritime domain awareness and support efforts to combat illegal fishing activities with partners with whom we have existing relationships.
The Harriet Lane is the Coast Guard Pacific Area’s newest Indo-Pacific support cutter. The ship is especially suited, according to the Guard, for longer-range six-to-eight week joint operational and training patrols in the Pacific, taking pressure off shorter range Hawaii-based cutters more suited to service closer to home port.
The Harriet Lane is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to support Coast Guard missions in the Pacific region. The service’s medium endurance cutter fleet supports a variety of Coast Guard missions including search and rescue, law enforcement, maritime defense, and protection of the marine environment.
The Guard has said that it plans to use medium endurance cutters for responsibilities in Hawaiian waters, as well as an increase Coast Guard presence throughout the Indo-Pacific and Oceania.