Bosaso, Somalia - A region in Somalia is cracking down on an upsurge in illegal fishing off its coast as fleets flock to waters where foreign naval forces have been taking on the pirates that make fishing a risky business.

Describing illegal fishing as "a national disaster", President Abdiweli Ali Gas of the autonomous state of Puntland, in the country's northeast, ordered four South Korean trawlers into port following claims they broke local laws.

Environmentalists used satellite technology to document the vessels trawling the seabed for catches that Al Jazeera discovered are mostly ending up in Italy - despite European Union regulations banning imports of illegally caught fish.