In the 1980s the Somali fishing industry was steadily expanding, then in 1991 the civil war began and what was described by the UN as a free-for-all took place in the waters off Somalia."It's almost like a resource swap. Somalis collect up to $100 million a year from pirate ransoms off their coasts. And the Europeans and Asians poach around $300 million a year in fish from Somalia waters." Peter Lehr, St. Andrew's University.
Foreign fishing vessels began to turn the “Somali seabed into a wasteland” and most of the world ignored what was happening.1
One response by some Somali communities was the creation of local coast-guards to police their waters. At this time, in the early 1990s, it was common to talk of the vigilante Somali coast-guards fighting against the international pirate fleet. And when an illegal ship was caught in Somali waters, it was fined. The ship was held until the penalty was paid.
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