Law Enforcement « Coast Guard Alaska

Coast Guard Cutter SPAR conducts winter patrol

During a recent winter patrol, the Coast Guard Cutter SPAR crew stayed busy. We’d like to take you on their recent voyage around Kodiak Island. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR crewmembers conducted a burial at sea near Kodiak, Alaska. Petty Officer 1st […]

The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley patrols the North Pacific in support of Operation Arctic Shield 2015. The main objective of Operation Arctic Shield is to enhance and improve preparedness, prevention and response capabilities due to increasing human activity in the Arctic. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jesse Kristofferson)

75 days patrolling the Last Frontier

The Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley returned to their homeport of Kodiak, Alaska, Jan. 22, 2017, after a 75-day patrol. The cutter’s path took her 10,000 miles through the Bering Sea.

Coast Guard, Alaska Wildlife Troopers team up to enforce maritime law near Kodiak, Alaska

Coast Guard law enforcement teams are trained in federal fisheries laws and inspect vessels to ensure compliance with fishing seasons, permit requirements, gear and catch restrictions, and landing quotas. While conducting this important maritime law enforcement mission in Chiniak and Marmot Bays near Kodiak, a boarding team from the Coast Guard Cutter SPAR recently discovered a pair of lingcod peeking out from under a tarp on the back deck of a vessel the team was inspecting.

A small boat crew from the Coast Guard Cutter Mellon conducts air operations training with a MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew while underway May 27, 2015. The crew of the Mellon, a 378-foot high-endurance cutter homeported in Seattle, has been patrolling the high seas in search of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity in support of Operation North Pacific Guard. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

High-Seas Driftnets: Destroyers of the Deep

For Operation North Pacific Guard, USCGC Mellon combats illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing

For nearly a year, the net has been forgotten. The fishermen who placed it there never located the radio beacon attached to it, so with a shrug of their shoulders they moved on. Not a single one of them has lost a moment of sleep or wondered what became of it; they didn’t see the dolphins flailing or hear the cries of the whales as the driftnet ensnared entire pods. As weeks passed, the commotion and the scent of prey drew in sharks and seals, and one by one they swam into the wall, where they would either suffocate or starve. Suspended across five miles, the hungry net continues to feed: tuna, turtles, salmon, squid, even birds, until…

“Everything,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Roy Hawes, a boatswain’s mate assigned to U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mellon. “Everything dies.”

School’s in session for Coast Guard Sector Anchorage law enforcement academy

Warm weather and only slightly less freezing waters are sure signs that summer has once again returned to Alaska and for the Coast Guard that usually means business is about to pick up. The return of the midnight sun means the return of recreational boaters and the potential for trouble which is why Coast Guard members from Sector Anchorage met April 13-17 to hone the skills they’ll need to safely conduct boarding operations throughout the busy season.