Fish stocks in the Indian Ocean were depleted before last year’s tsunami and could be further endangered by overfishing in the region, experts warned on Thursday.

The WorldFish Centre, an international scientific research organisation, said the rebuilding effort should not risk endangering the remaining stocks by replacing all the fishing boats that were destroyed in the disaster. New boats, with new fishing gear, would be likely to have a higher fishing capacity than those they replaced, which could put unbearable additional strain on stocks.