Coastwatch Enters New Jet Era

Coastwatch is the frontline weapon used to combat illegal activities around Australia’s vast coastline. Its aerial surveillance arm, recently boosted by the IAI SeaScan jet aircraft, is considered vital in the war against smuggling and illegal fishing and immigration.

The Australian Customs Service was tasked by the Federal Government in August 1988 with operating Australia’s Coastwatch organisation. Since that time, Coastwatch has been built up into an effective surveillance operation patrolling Australia’s vast and largely uninhabited coastline. It has achieved considerable success, both in detecting illegal activities and in apprehending offenders, and has now expanded operations to cover the entire Australian coastline.

For its aerial operations Coastwatch has an annual budget of about $19m to fly missions not only for Customs but also various government agencies such as the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, National Parks and Wildlife, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Immigration and Fisheries. Almost all Coastwatch flights are now tasked by three or four of these agencies, with missions being aimed at detecting drug runners, illegal fishing, bird and wildlife smuggling, and illegal immigration including that by Asian refugees. Aerial surveillance is quite often the only means of detecting these illegal and potentially hazardous (eg for quarantine reasons) activities.

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