Humanity has long relied on the world’s five oceans to sustain life as well as support marine transportation, tourism, fishing and energy generation. Together, these oceans generate goods and services worth $2.5 trillion every year, enough to make them the seventh largest economy on the planet.

However, the fisheries and aquaculture sectors that provide food across the globe and livelihoods for almost 12 per cent of the world’s population are under threat from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. This activity costs the ocean economy more than $23 billion a year and endangers the sustainability of marine wildlife and the fishing industry.

Illegal fishing is typically done by ‘dark vessels’, which do not broadcast their location or appear in public monitoring systems. The threat to fish stocks is real and it is growing. Currently about 30 per cent of all fish stocks are overfished, and about 60 per cent are fully fished.