For all the territory we have carved up into countries, much of the ocean lies outside any national jurisdiction. About 45 percent of the globe remains common property. This largely unregulated space, referred to in somewhat romantic fashion as the “high seas,” covers more surface area than all land masses combined.
Responsible stewardship of our common ocean is becoming increasingly urgent. We must engage with the rest of the world to manage the political and environmental issues at stake on the high seas.
That is why I agreed to join the Global Ocean Commission. Launched just three months ago at Oxford University, it is a dynamic global initiative to improve the way we manage and use the high seas.
In the United States, as in other industrialized countries, we have made tremendous progress to protect our natural resources. Yet for all our domestic success, we have struggled to translate our priorities internationally.
As industrial activity expands to the high seas, we also must expand sensible management principles. The economic and social benefits of good stewardship are as real in international waters as they are on U.S. soil. Environmental protection carries a substantial financial return. Polluted rivers sicken the workforce; collapsed fisheries support no livelihoods. Economic and environmental priorities need to march hand in hand.
The United States should join the international community in working to provide certainty for ocean industries and address threats to global security and the environment.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been ratified by more than 180 countries. The United States is not yet among them, despite support from every living former president, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, the American Petroleum Institute and innumerable military officials. This puts our diplomats and industries at a disadvantage. Congressional gridlock makes ratification uncertain in the near term, but we should take interim steps to make our oceans management more robust.
When the treaty was first negotiated in the 1960s, high-seas fishing was a new frontier. Since then, technology has changed so rapidly that two-thirds of stocks targeted by high-seas vessels are overexploited or depleted. Reforming high-seas management will benefit domestic fisheries and global society by making fishing sustainable and equitable.
Ocean management matters for human rights and international security as well. A 2011 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found narcotics, migrants, and “weapons and acts of terrorism” are commonly smuggled on fishing vessels. The report further documented forced labor on some fishing boats and found evidence of child trafficking.
High-seas fishing vessels generally are not required to carry a unique identification number or a black box satellite transponder, or to file anything like an aircraft flight plan. Improving oversight of these vessels could reduce trafficking and human rights violations.
The ocean also plays a critical role in regulating the climate. Oceans absorb a quarter of the carbon dioxide warming the planet and pump out half the oxygen we breathe.
International governments have struggled to find a path to reform. In the fall, the U.N. General Assembly will begin discussing marine life management. In 2015, negotiations on the global development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals agreed to in principle at Rio+20 last year should wrap up.
Now is the time to establish a framework to manage the high seas. The ocean, our planet’s fundamental life support system, needs to operate at peak health and efficiency.
John Podesta is chairman of the Center for American Progress. He served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001. He wrote this for this newspaper.
