CALLS are rising for greater surveillance of Pacific maritime routes as drug traffickers increase their use of regional sea limes to transport methamphetamines from South America to Australia.
More than $FJD4 billion worth of drugs was uncovered in Fiji earlier this year and French authorities have seized two shipments of methamphetamines near Tahiti. In the Solomon Islands and the Northern Pacific, islanders have found abandoned narco—subs—fast craft which sit low in the water to transport illicit substances.
The finds have exposed significant surveillance gaps across the Pacific Ocean.
While many Pacific states have received patrol boats from Australia to help with surveillance, the reality is that the ocean is too wide and assets too few.
In Fiji, the government has acknowledged the scale of the problem, describing the ocean space as a persistent security blind spot that continues to be exploited.
Last week, Opposition MP Semi Koroilavesau, questioned Fiji’s capacity to monitor the “huge expanse of oceans” within its EEZ, warning that organised networks continued to exploit maritime gaps to move illicit goods undetected.
Koroilavesau—a career naval officer turned tourist cruise ship owner—has extensive knowledge of the sea and the navy’s issues with covering the EEZ.
Defence Minister Pio Tikoduadua said Fiji’s maritime threat extended beyond narcotics, pointing to a wider and increasingly complex maritime environment shaped by transnational organised crime, illegal fishing, human trafficking and rising regional security pressures.
He said Fiji could no longer rely on traditional patrol-based surveillance alone, given the scale and cost of monitoring its ocean territory.
Tikoduadua told Parliament that Fiji was shifting towards a layered and intelligence-led system designed to prioritise detection over constant physical presence. What he didn’t say was Fiji can’t afford to have ships at sea and aircraft in the air to monitor the situation.
Small states like Fiji and every other Pacific country must expand regional cooperation with partners including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, France and their neighbours if they are to have a fighting chance.
Tikoduadua said intelligence sharing, joint patrols and training programmes were being used to extend Fiji’s operational reach beyond its limited maritime assets.
He said Fiji was investing in radar systems, satellite surveillance, secure communications and unmanned aerial and maritime platforms (drones) to improve awareness and enable targeted operations rather than broad and costly patrol coverage.
New Zealand has—through its navy—provided maritime drones for surveillance.
National coordinate through the Vuvale Maritime Essential Service Centre in Lami, Fiji, provides another tier of coverage – multiple agencies cooperating involving navy, police, customs, Immigration, fisheries, and biosecurity in a single operational space to improve real-time information flow and inter-agency response.
