Economics, science, equity and public opinion provide a watertight case for reforming the way our ocean is governed and managed, said the Global Ocean Commission at the conclusion of its inaugural meeting, in Cape Town, South Africa recently.

According to a statement by the Global Ocean Commission, fisheries practices that prevent the ocean from providing as much food as it could, inequalities in access to ocean resources and continuing damage to marine life are all parts of a picture that could be vastly improved with better management.

The Global Ocean Commission is an independent group of leaders from politics, business, economics, law and development, jointly chaired by former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, Trevor Manuel, Minister in the South African Presidency, and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MP.

Over the next 15 months or so, it will formulate proposals that could, if implemented, reverse degradation of the ocean and restore it to full health and sustainable productivity.

“We have taken our first steps into these waters, and I have to say that we have travelled a long way in just a few days,” said Manuel.

“We have listened to experts and had a very productive dialogue with stakeholders; we have discussed the problems, we have talked through some initial ideas on possible solutions,” he said.

“None of us was foolish enough to think that charting a future for the ocean would be easy; but from where we are now, I can say that it looks feasible.”

The Commission’s work will focus on the high seas, the waters that lie outside the control of individual governments and make up 45% of the Earth’s surface. They sit under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which passed its 30^th anniversary in December.

As legal specialists told the Commission, UNCLOS has been very successful in some areas, such as merchant shipping. But it has been much less successful at conserving biodiversity or maximising the economic return from fisheries.

“When you look at the way the high seas are governed and managed, you see a system that is seriously fragmented and, in some important ways, simply out of date,” said MrMiliband.

“On land, when we look around the world, we see how crucial good governance is for economies and for the environment, and the high seas are no different; reform is imperative,” he said.

On the eve of the meeting, the Commission released results of a global survey indicating that 85% of the public worldwide support sustainable management of the ocean, with just 5% opposed.

A key concern running through the meeting was equity. The Commission heard peer-reviewed evidence showing that developing countries are disproportionately affected by overfishing, and lack the technical and political resources to gain an equitable footing in management bodies.

Over the next 12-15 months, the Commission will hold further formal meetings and engage with stakeholder communities in various countries around the world.Its recommendations will feed into a number of international processes, including the United Nations General Assembly deliberations on conserving biodiversity in waters beyond national jurisdiction, scheduled for September 2014.