A newly delivered patrol vessel will be deployed on fisheries enforcement duties off the northern coast of Western Australia.
Equinox will be based out of Broome and will patrol northern WA waters across the Kimberly region with a focus on commercial and recreational fisheries compliance and marine park management.
The WA Government said the vessel will provide an important additional capability for monitoring remote islands, coastal areas and wildlife populations across the northern portion of the state.
Equinox will also support the WA Government's co-ordinated bird flu response by helping surveillance teams access remote locations, investigate reports, and monitor areas that can be difficult to reach from land.
The vessel will assist with other activities in collaboration with state and federal agencies, including search and rescue, shark incident response, whale disentanglement, and illegal foreign fishing boat interception.
The newbuild will replace the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's ageing patrol vessel Walcott.
The all-aluminium Equinox has an LOA of 24.95 metres, a beam of 6.8 metres, a draught of only 1.8 metres, and a crew complement of five. Two MAN engines driving fixed-pitch propellers will deliver a top speed of 25 knots and a cruising speed of 20 knots.
The vessel was designed by Southerly Designs.
