With the help of Google Earth satellite images, researchers uncovered a Middle Eastern fish scam which could mean that six times more "sea dwellers are caught than is officially reported," The Register reported.

While trying to figure out whether fisherman in the Persian Gulf were telling the truth about how many fish they capture, researchers from the University of British Columbia found the presence of approximately 1,900 fishing traps along the coast of the Persian Gulf in 2005.

Using the data, researchers calculated that the local fisherman could have caught about 31,000 tons of fish that year, much more than the official figure reported to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization of 5,260 tons, UPI reported.

"Time and again we've seen that global fisheries catch data (doesn't) add up," Daniel Pauly, principal investigator and the study's co-author, said in a statement. "Because countries don't provide reliable information on their fisheries' catches, we need to expand our thinking and look at other sources of information and new technologies to tell us about what's happening in our oceans."

However, officials said just 1 percent of the total catch come from these aquatic killing fields. Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak, a PhD student with the UBC Fisheries Centre's Sea Around Us Project and the study's lead author, said that is unlikely.

"My estimate says it is closer to 10 percent," Al-Abdulrazzak told the Register. "So, it is a lot more significant than they are giving these traps credit for."

That year, countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar reported no catch data from their fishing weirs but the images showed that Iran had 728 weirs, with a potential catch of 13,225 tons of fish.

The fish traps used were weir-like constructions which have been used for more than 3,000 years. Fishing weirs are semi-permanent traps that take advantage of tidal differences to catch a wide variety of marine species.

Used in Southeast Asia, Africa and parts of North America, some weirs can be more than 100 meters long.

"This ancient fishing technique has been around for thousands of years," Al-Abdulrazzak said in a statement. "But we haven't been able to truly grasp their impact on our marine resources until now, with the help of modern technology."

The study shows the potential for using remote-sensing approaches, such as satellite imagery, to validate catch statistics and fisheries operations in general.