A United Nations report in 2006 said that, in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international "free for all," with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen. According to another U.N. report, an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country's coastline each year. "In any context," says Gustavo Carvalho, a London-based researcher with Global Witness, an environmental NGO, "that is a staggering sum."
This also points to Somalia’s basic problem. It has not had an organized and recognized government since the ouster of President Barre in 1991. At that time and before it was a under the Soviet Sphere of influence. With the end of the Soviets and the Cold war, there was no one to prop them up and so they have fallen into this lawless land. The Pirates are only a symptom of all of these warring tribal factions trying to gain control of the country and none of them able to fend off any outside interference from other countries such as this fishing problem.