David Miliband to head global fight to prevent eco-disaster in oceans

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/09/lawless-high-seas-threaten-the-planet


Factory fishing in the Bering Sea: 'We are living as if there are three or four planets instead of one, and you can’t get away with that,' says David Miliband. Photograph: Natalie Fobes/Corbis

An environmental catastrophe with greater economic impact than the global financial crash is occurring on the high seas, according to David Miliband. The former foreign secretary is to lead a new, high-level international effort to end the lawlessness of the oceans, which will be unveiled this week.

The high seas, which lie beyond any national jurisdiction, cover almost half the Earth's surface and decades of over-exploitation have caused trillions of dollars' worth of fish catches to be lost. Pirate fishing, often using slave labour and linked to cocaine and weapons smuggling, is rife and the damage caused to life in the oceans is harming the habitability of the whole planet. Future risks include sea-floor mining and rogue geoengineering.

"The worst of the current system is plunder and pillage on a massive scale," Miliband told the Observer. "It is the ecological equivalent of the financial crisis. The long-term costs of the mismanagement of our oceans are at least as great as long-term costs of the mismanagement of the financial system. We are living as if there are three or four planets instead of one, and you can't get away with that."

Miliband, in an unpaid role, will lead the new Global Ocean Commission, along with Nelson Mandela's former finance minister, Trevor Manuel, and the former president of Costa Rica, José María Figueres. The launch in London on Tuesday will introduce further commissioners, including more former heads of state and senior ministers from leading G20 nations.