Greenpeace is calling on Pacific Island Governments to make Japan and other distant water fishing nations pay back millions of dollars in illegal fish catches.
A report by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin tuna found Japan had illegally caught up to billions of dollars worth of tuna over the past 20 years.
The organisation's Australia Pacific Ocean team leader Nilesh Goundar said Pacific Island Governments must not allow foreign industrial fishing nations like Japan hoodwink them into letting it plunder their oceans.
He says Pacific countries rely upon their oceans as a crucial economic resource, as tuna fisheries make up to 40 percent of GDP for some states.
