Since a civil war brought down Somalia's last functional government in 1991, the country's 2,000 miles of coastline -- the longest in continental Africa -- has been pillaged by foreign vessels. A United Nations report in 2006 said that in the absence of the country's once serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become 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.
