Global coalition launched for marine protection

(The Guardian): A new partnership to raise $1.5bn (£633m) for the world's oceans, double marine protected areas and rebuild fish stocks was launched on Friday by the World Bank. The Global Partnership for Oceans, a coalition of governments, NGOs, scientists and businesses, is a political boost for the world's overfished, heavily polluted and increasingly warming oceans. More controversially it proposes the expansion of aquaculture (farmed fish) to provide two-thirds of the world's fish, up from half today, to alleviate pressure on wild fish as a growing human population increasingly looks to the sea for protein.

Unveiling the plan, the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, warned that marine ecosystems, which cover more than 70% of the surface of the planet, have deteriorated to a perilous level.

"The world's oceans are in danger, and the enormity of the challenge is bigger than one country or organisation. We need co-ordinated global action to restore our oceans to health," he told the Economist's World Ocean Summit in Singapore.

The alliance brings together many nations and organisations that are already attempting to alleviate what is, after the climate, the ultimate "tragedy of the commons" – the running down of resources that are largely owned by no one, exploited by anyone and woefully unregulated.

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