Illegal Fishing Worth $9bn a Year, Says Report

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is raking in catches worth up to $9bn (£5.15bn) a year, according to a report by a British-chaired group of fisheries ministers and conservation organisations which blames lack of national and international political leadership for the problem.

The report says the trade undermines economies of developing countries, puts unsustainable pressure on fish stocks, destroys marine wildlife and habitats and is often linked to other illegal activities such as smuggling and money-laundering.

Illegal fishing has proved "stubbornly resistant" to recent attempts to control it, according to Ben Bradshaw, the British minister who chairs the High Seas Task Force, which also includes Australia, Canada, Chile, Namibia and New Zealand, WWF, the World Conservation Union, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York.

Mr Bradshaw said the trade in so-called IUU fishing "imposes significant economic costs on some of the poorest companies in the world and undermines the governance structures".

Research by the Marine Assessment Research Group, consultants commissioned by the task force, estimates that catches worldwide total between $4bn (£2.3bn) and $9bn a year, with losses from the waters off sub-Saharan Africa alone totalling $1bn, equivalent to one-quarter of the continent's total annual fisheries exports.

The task force calls on other countries to commit funds and staffing to the present voluntary international monitoring, control and surveillance network and collate information on all high seas fishing vessels. It also demands better enforcement of existing agreements such as the 1995 UN fish stocks agreement, greater co-ordination and cooperation in policing the high seas.

Gareth Thomas, the international development minister, said organisations such as the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation had been helpful but had "struggled to push this up individual countries' agenda. What we have to do is make it a much bigger political issue and make it more of a priority for both developed and developing countries."