New report highlights laundering

A new report by The Worldwide Fund for Nature accuses international high seas fishing organisations of failing to prevent over-fishing.

The study of the world's 16 Regional Fisheries Management Organisations concludes the RFMOs have allowed marine eco-systems to decay and failed to prevent fish laundering.

Fish launderers land their catch in ports with more lax controls and reload it onto other ships sailing under other countries' flags.

The WWF says some members of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation have ignored quotas and unilaterally set their own, and tuna fishers are regularly exceeding their quotas.

New Zealand, Australia and Chile have recently initiated a process to set up an RFMO in the Pacific.