Fifteen countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific adopted a declaration on Wednesday to step up efforts to combat illegal fishing, a practice that experts say costs the world economy up to $50 billion annually.
The ‘Mombasa declaration’, named after the Kenyan city hosting the 11th Our Ocean Conference, calls on governments to improve access to information on fishing vessels, ownership and licensing, and to strengthen data sharing to better track fishing activities and enforce regulations.
