More coordinated action is needed to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Asia and the Pacific – activities that result in estimated losses to the region of some USD 5 billion annually, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

FAO has been responding to the growing problem of IUU fishing by working with governments worldwide encouraging them to accede to the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), a legally binding treaty, where signatory countries share information on non-compliant fishing boats with others who can refuse those fishing boats access to their ports to land the IUU catch.