ROME, March 7 (UPI) -- Greenpeace Wednesday released its list of illegal fishing vessels in a bid to crack down on unregulated fishing worldwide.
The activist group came up with a blacklist of illegal fishing vessels for the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization's fisheries committee meeting, pointing out that illegal fishing industry rakes in over $9 billion globally.
"The fact that Greenpeace has to publish a global database of blacklisted illegal fishing vessels demonstrates clearly just how little concrete action states have taken to stop this pillage of our oceans," said Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International. "What's needed now is an official body to take charge of the policing of the worlds' oceans and make publicly available the information of both illegitimate and unlicensed fishing vessels. Until this happens, we have little hope of stopping the devastation which pirate fishing brings."
