Search-and-rescue and illegal-fishing patrols are continuing through a partnership forged last year with the US Coast Guard.

In the joint efforts, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Rollin Fitch came to Bermuda in March. The USCGC Richard Snyder docked in Hamilton as part of “continued security co-operation between the United States and Bermuda”, the US Consulate said.

The 154-foot vessel specialises in search and rescue, port security and intercepting smugglers.

Operations are conducted with the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the Royal Bermuda Regiment, the RBR Coastguard and police. Three US Coast Guard ships were in waters off the island last year in the conducting of the exercises.

The cutters kept watch from international waters seaward of the Bermuda Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 230 miles into the ocean.

The partnership was said to expand upon “previous fisheries enforcement operations and will conduct missions that include port, waterways and coastal security, fishery patrols, search and rescue and national defence”.

Commissioned in 2018, the Richard Snyder was used in the retrieval of a Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this year.