COAST GUARD CUTTER KUKUI RETURNS HOME FROM SOUTH PACIFIC PATROL
Story and photos by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael De Nyse, U.S. Coast Guard District 14
The Coast Guard cutter Kukui and its crew of 45 returned home Dec.11, 2007, from an 8,000-mile multi-mission trip to the South Pacific.
The Kukui is a 225-foot, Juniper-class buoy tender homeported in Honolulu. In addition to servicing buoys and other Coast Guard aids to navigation throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the crew also performs: law enforcement; marine pollution response; and search and rescue.
The primary purpose of the Kukui's recent seven-week patrol was to enforce United States fisheries laws and to deter illegal foreign fishing within U.S. waters.
"This patrol highlighted the true multi-mission ability of our ship and crew," said Lt. j.g. Jeffrey West, an operations officer aboard the Kukui.
The Kukui's crew took part in several multi-agency operations during this patrol. The crew made use of its crane and cargo space and transported more than 4,000 pounds of equipment and field engineers from the U.S. Geological Survey to construct seismic recording stations. These stations allow the recording of seismic data in a specific location, if it is available. The engineers constructed the stations on the remote Canton Atoll, in the Republic of Kiribati. They also updated and restored power to another seismic recorder on Johnston Island.
Data from both these stations will be transmitted into the United States Tsunami Warning System and help provide an early alert network when a tsunami threatens in the Pacific Ocean basin. Also, on this trip, the Kukui's crew replaced a National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) weather buoy that was adrift 200 miles southeast of the Big Island.
The 6-meter-long, aluminum-hulled Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device (NOMAD) was anchored but broke free from its 10,000 feet of synthetic mooring line. The Kukui crew repositioned and moored the NOMAD buoy and the NOAA crew installed new weather instruments. The new instruments on the NOMAD buoy will help Honolulu's National Weather Service office issue high surf advisories, analyze tropical cyclone formations and create weather forecasts.
During this voyage, the Kukui's crew also played a role in a law enforcement exercise. The Kukui became the first American military vessel to visit the Cook Islands in more than a decade. While in the Island of Rarotonga, William P. McCormack, the U.S. Ambassador there, visited the Kukui's crew and hosted a reception with Cook Islands officials in honor of signing a new bilateral agreement intended to help both nations protect their waters from illegal fishing.
"Throughout this entire operation, the crew maintained the highest degree of professionalism, safety and morale, putting in day after day of exhausting hours," said Lt. Whitney Houck, Kukui's executive officer.
Crewmembers aboard the Kukui and a Cook Islands patrol boat crew took part in a week-long joint law enforcement patrol. A foreign fishing vessel was detected illegally transiting in Cook Islands waters as a result of these efforts. Additionally, law enforcement personnel from Kukui boarded an American Samoan fishing vessel and terminated its voyage for numerous safety, fishery and environmental violations.
Also in Samoa, members of the Kukui's law enforcement team took part in a professional exchange with 12 crewmembers of American Samoan patrol boat. Law-enforcement officers from Kukui discussed Coast Guard boarding procedures with their Samoan counterparts and instructed them on evidence collection techniques and case package preparation.
Kukui's crewmembers also found time for community relations during this past trip to the South Pacific.
Kukui's crew and Coast Guard District Fourteen personnel donated more than 200 shirts, 50 pairs of shorts, 40 pairs of shoes, and 20 soccer balls to the children of Canton Atoll, Kiribati. Also, 15 crewmembers spent the day in Raratonga roofing, remodeling and painting a local school in the Cook Islands. They unloaded a pallet of toys for the children that attend the newly remodeled school. The crew also delivered a pallet of medical supplies to Cook Islands Medical Hospital.
"I'm extremely proud of the can-do attitude and professionalism of the crew and their accomplishments. The success of this trip is a testament to their hard work," said Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Matadobra, commanding officer of the Kukui.
On the final leg of the Kukui's voyage back to Honolulu, it was diverted by Coast Guard search and rescue controllers on Oahu to medevac an ill 33-year-old crewmember from the Taiwanese fishing vessel Sheng Yi Tsai No.166, about 800 miles southwest of Oahu. The Kukui's medical personnel stabilized the patient on Johnston Atoll, which is a small 596-acre island 750 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii. The crew treated the patient until he was airlifted by an aircrew aboard a Coast Guard C-130 search plane to the Queens Medical Center in Honolulu.
From buoys to law enforcement to search and rescue to community relations, the Kukui crew is tasked with a plethora of missions.
"One minute we'll be working buoys and the next we're conducting a medical evacuation. That's the buoy tender way. It's not just about Aids to Navigation (ATON). When you're the only Coast Guard asset within hundreds or thousands of miles, you learn to become a jack of all trades," said West.
The crew of the Kukui showed that hard work, determination and professionalism can get any job done.
Editor's note: Photos are available upon request. Please contact PA3 Michael De Nyse at (808) 535-3230 for more information.
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