By Poppy Philbrook
Expo Reporter
OSAKA, Japan– The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier made a historic first docking in the Port of Osaka as part of the four-country Operation North Pacific Guard.
Operation North Pacific Guard is a Canadian-led collaboration involving Canada, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Launched in 2019, the initiative seeks to uphold international standards and regulations for fishing in the North Pacific region. And of special interest to Canada, this mission allows experts to get a better sense of what is happening with precious Pacific salmon stocks during the part of their life cycle spent far away from Canada.
In conjunction with Expo 2025, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier docked here and welcomed two days of sold-out tours on June 11 and 12 during its first-ever stop in Osaka. The goal of the visit was to teach visitors about Canada’s role in the annual Operation North Pacific Guard (Op. NPG) before the vessel sets off for two months on the high seas in the Arctic region this summer.
“For North Pacific Guard, this is the first time all four nations will be on the ship together,” Commanding Officer Frederic Hamilton said during a tour of the vessel on June 12. Hamilton has worked at various times on the iconic Canadian Polar Class 5 icebreaker since his time as a cadet in 2001.
Ian G. McKay, Canada’s Ambassador to Japan and Special Envoy to the Indo-Pacific, echoed the significance of this year’s mission. “The participation of Japanese, South Korean, and U.S. officials in these patrols is a concrete example of increasing regional cooperation to address common challenges, including declining fish stocks, threats to biodiversity, and pollution.”
Backed by both the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) under Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, Op. NPG aligns itself closely with Expo 2025’s overarching theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) notes that as a Pacific nation, Canada recognizes that the Indo-Pacific region plays a significant and profound role in Canada’s future. “Every issue that matters to Canadians will be shaped by the relationships that Canada, along with its partners, have with countries throughout the Indo-Pacific,” the department said in a June 9 news release.
For Canada and the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier, this collaboration is a three-pronged approach.
“The main purpose of our mission is to deter illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing,” Op. NPG Chief Officer Mike Rodney told reporters during a briefing aboard the vessel. According to Rodney, alongside water patrols conducted by the Sir Wilfrid Laurier vessel, the Canadian team will use satellites via Canada’s Dark Vessel Detection program, searching for vessels whose signals are turned off to evade radar detection, and aerial surveillance.
Countering illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing is a top priority, followed closely by the collection of environmental data and water samples to broaden Canada’s understanding of the harsh high-seas environment. Areas of research include “…the migration range of species of interest, such as Pacific salmon, and the levels of microplastics in the water,” according to the DFO.
The DFO’s special interest in Pacific salmon isn’t without reason.
Regular waterways for salmon migration along Canada’s Pacific Northwest region have faced a stark decline in salmon populations since the 1980s, ringing countless alarm bells.
“Salmon is a key species that we’re trying to uphold. Those salmon need to make it back to shore,” DFO’s Chief of International Programs for Conservation and Protection, Sean Wheeler, said in a brief interview following the June 12 tour.
Right now, the DFO has limited knowledge of what Pacific salmon do for the years they spend at sea. Collaborating with Japan in initiatives like Op. NPG gives them eyes on the other side of the world’s largest body of water.
“For us, this is about getting eyes on that migration,” Wheeler said. “You can imagine all the effort we put into improving these stocks [of Pacific salmon] domestically. It’s a loss if we’re not protecting the high seas.”
“Salmon is a key species that we’re trying to uphold. Those salmon need to make it back to shore.”
— Sean Wheeler, DFO’s Chief of International Programs for Conservation and Protection
Furthermore, CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s sustainability and conservation efforts go beyond this year’s involvement in Op. NPG.
In 2024, the 39-year-old vessel underwent an extensive Vessel Life Extension through the North Vancouver-based maritime company, Seaspan. In addition to refurbishing the ship’s interior and eroded exterior components following decades of service, the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s engine was replaced, so that it can run on biodiesel.
Hamilton says this change has reduced the vessel’s emissions by up to 80 per cent, and he hopes to see other ships in the Canadian Coast Guard fleet undergo the same shift to biodiesel.
“We are the first ship in the Canadian Coast Guard to convert, but the goal of the Canadian Coast Guard is to have all ships be able to use the tri-blend that we tried, and to reduce the Coast Guard’s emissions to be carbon neutral by 2050,” said Hamilton.
