East African governments are hardening their position against illegal fishing in the South West Indian Ocean, warning that foreign industrial fleets are exploiting weak enforcement and fragmented laws to plunder marine resources and undermine coastal economies.

Speaking during the Blue Voices Regional Summit in Zanzibar, government officials, fisheries authorities and legal experts from Tanzania and Kenya agreed that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) has escalated beyond an environmental concern into a threat to national sovereignty, food security and economic stability.