UN agencies urge stronger efforts to stop illegal fishing

Major United Nations agencies are urging key fishing nations to join efforts to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and other groups made the call at a conference in Bangkok on Wednesday focused on helping protect fisheries and those working in the industry.

Thailand is the world's biggest importer of tuna. It has one of the seven state-of-the-art centers in the region monitoring fishing vessels in real time to help control access to regional ports and curb illegal fishing.

The centers are helping enforce the Port State Measures Agreement, which aims to help curb illegal, unreported and unregulated or IUU fishing. Dozens of governments have joined but U.N. officials are urging more to support the effort.

Illegal fishing costs countries in the Asia-Pacific region some $5 billion a year; globally more than $20 billion. And rogue fishing vessels often engage in other crimes such as piracy and human and drug trafficking, abuses being fought along with the International Labor Organization and International Organization for Migration.

Preventing such vessels from selling illegal catches is the most vital element for stopping illegal fishing, Adisorn Promthep, director-general of Thailand's Department of Fisheries, said during a visit to the center in Bangkok.

"We also make certain that no IUU fish or products come to Thailand and this is going to be a big help to work against IUU," Adisorn said in an interview.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press investigation in 2015-16 that uncovered severe rights abuses affecting migrant workers in Thailand's fishing and seafood industries helped focus attention on the problem. The stories helped free more than 2,000 enslaved men from Myanmar, Cambodia,