The FBI searched the Washington office of Global Fishing, a company founded by an alleged illegal fisherman from Russia.  From the Seattle Times: FBI and federal fisheries agents on Wednesday searched the Bellevue office of Global Fishing, whose founder Arkadi Gontmakher is currently detained in Moscow and charged by the Russian government with trafficking in black-market king [...]

Fisherman using illegal lay gill nets are capturing and killing a large portion of coral reef fish on the shores of Hawaii. From the Honolulu Advertiser: The steep decline of reef fish populations in recent years has called attention to the damaging effects of lay-netting. A recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report showed that of 55 reef [...]

The BBC has a report on illegal fishing activities. From BBC News: The amount that Africa is losing, if new figures from David Agnew of Imperial College London are right, is about $1bn per year - the cost of licences that illegal fishers should have paid to catch what they are catching. The ecological cost may, in the [...]

The total value of Illegal Fishing losses worldwide is between $10 billion and $23 billion annually. Source: MRAG and the University of British Colombia Fihseries Centre, “The Globa Extent of Illegal Fishing, ” April 2008.

The illegal trade in South African abalone is estimated at$ 70 to $140 million. The catch is approximately 1,500 tonnes. Source: MRAG and the University of British Colombia Fisheries Centre, “The Global Extent of Illegal Fishing,” April 2008, pg.8.

Source: MRAG and the University of British Colombia Fisheries Centre, “The Global Extent of Illegal Fishing,” April 2008, pg. 7.

Over 100,000 tonnes of illegal cod valued at 225 million euros (350 million dollars) was caught in the Barents Sea (Atlantic Ocean) in 2005. Source: AFP, “Illegal cod fishing in Arctic threatening fisheries: WWF,” Yahoo News, April 15, 2008.  

In the Caspian Sea, a kilogram of caviar sells for $300 to $500 on the black market. It is then sold in Europe and the United States at a price worth 10 times as much. Source: C.J. Chivers, ” Corruption Endangers a Treasure of the Caspian,” York Times, November 28, 2005.

The Associated Press reported that “Russian crime gangs smuggle beluga caviar in suitcases, fetching $4,450 per kilogram in the retail market.” Source: Associated Press, ” Crime syndicates smuggling wildlife,” Yahoo News, June 7, 2007.

An estimated 10 times more sturgeon is caught illegally than under officially regulated fishing. Source: Shaun Walker, “Caviar: The black market in black gold,” The Independent, December 28, 2007.