In addition to announcing the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to create the world's largest ocean preserve, President Barack Obama also announced plans to fight seafood fraud on Tuesday at the Our Ocean conference.

Through a video message to the State Department's Our Ocean conference, the president addressed illegal fishing's effects on the United States, which he described as a "global leader in sustainable seafood."

"Nevertheless, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to undermine the economic and environmental sustainability of fisheries and fish stocks, both in the United States and around the world," Obama said in his memorandum. "Global losses attributable to the black market from IUU fishing are estimated to be $10-23 billion annually, weakening profitability for legally caught seafood, fueling illegal trafficking operations, and undermining economic opportunity for legitimate fishermen..."

According to a 2014 study published by Marine Policy journal, 20-32 percent ($1.3-2.1 billion) of wild-caught seafood imported into the U.S. is caught illegally. To help fight this, Obama said he will implement the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. He also vowed to better empower existing authorities, work with Congress, industry and foreign partners and try new tactics "such as voluntary, or other, traceability programs."

In addition, Obama created a task force dedicated to stopping IUU fishing led by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Secretary of State John Kerry, who said Obama's order will "ensure that all seafood sold in the United States is both sustainable and traceable, meaning customers will know exactly who caught it, where and when," according to Huffington Post.

"I'm very appreciative for the President's announcement about the effort to deal with illegal fish that come to the marketplace," Kerry said during his conference remarks. "We can all do more, and if there's no market, we have an ability to really be able to begin to diminish the impact of illegal and undocumented, unwarranted fishing ...."

--- 

Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.