Australian Customs Service National Marine Unit
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The Australian Customs Service National Marine Unit forms part of the Australian Customs Service and operates a fleet of eight Bay class patrol boats around Australian waters. The Bay class boats are 38 metre long oceangoing patrol boats and are also known as Australian Customs Vessels (ACVs).
The eight ACVs currently in service are:
- ACV Roebuck Bay
- ACV Holdfast Bay
- ACV Botany Bay
- ACV Hervey Bay
- ACV Corio Bay
- ACV Arnhem Bay
- ACV Dame Roma Mitchell
- ACV Storm Bay
ACVs investigate possible or confirmed incursions into Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and visit remote or otherwise inaccessible areas within Australia’s offshore territories.
Customs also operates two large armed patrol vessels. RV Triton which operates primarily in Australia's northern waters and MV Oceanic Viking which conducts Customs and Fisheries patrols in the Southern Ocean. Each ship has two deck-mounted .50 caliber machine guns.
The National Marine Unit and Coastwatch work together under the direction of the Border Protection Command to detect and respond to any threats in Australian waters including people smuggling, illegal foreign fishing, terrorism, quarantine risks and the illegal importation of drugs and weapons.
