Illegal fishing in the Pacific Ocean costs over $600 million a year and is perpetrated largely by legal fishing vessels, a report has found.

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency has released a 100-page, in-depth look at the monetary value of the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices (IUU) in the region.

“IUU fishing by the licensed fleet accounts for over 95 per cent of the total volume and value of IUU activity estimated here,” it said.

Greenpeace says the report shows the need for more investment in policing and monitoring fishing, to put pressure on the illegal operators.

“This is daylight robbery, clear and simple,” Greenpeace campaigner Oliver Knowles said in a statement.

“A resource that belongs to the Pacific community is being stripped out by illegal operators, many of them from countries far away from the Pacific.”

“On top of the illegal catches, there is also the huge problem of destructive, wasteful and unsustainable fishing that is legal. The two combined are putting huge pressure on Pacific tuna stocks.”

Greenpeace says that that while over 70 per cent of the world’s tuna hails from the Pacific Islands, only 20 per cent of it is caught by Pacific Island fleets.

Worldwide tuna stocks are plummeting, with some tuna species such as bluefin now facing extinction if overfishing practices continue.

The report will be available here in coming days.