The former UK foreign secretary, David Miliband, is urging the creation of a seagoing police force to bring order to the "wild west" free-for-all on the high seas that is damaging the health of the world's oceans.
Miliband and the former Costa Rican president, José María Figueres, who together serve as co-chairs of the Global Oceans Commission, will formally unveil their ideas for ocean reform in a report next June.
But the two leaders have begun to sound out international reaction to a set of proposals for protecting oceans, from a crackdown on illegal fishing to a clean-up of the vast churn of plastic particles in the Pacific and expanding marine protection zones.
The two men previewed their ideas at a high-level gathering in California on Tuesday organized by the Economist and National Geographic.
Bringing order to the high seas is critical to managing existing fish stocks and safeguarding the world's food supply, Miliband said.
The commission is understood to be in discussions with Interpol about the deployment of an international ocean-police force.
Miliband said his vision of an ocean protection force would lean heavily on the deployment of new surveillance technologies to identify and track fishing vessels operating on the high seas, as well as their catch.
Illegal fishing on the high seas is stripping oceans of fish stocks, and threatening a major food source for 1 billion people, mostly in the developing world.
Two-thirds of the fish taken on the high seas are from stocks that are already dangerous depleted – far more so than in those parts of the ocean that lie within 200 miles of the shore and are under direct national control.
Estimates of the unreported and illegal catch on the high seas range between $10bn-$24bn a year, overwhelming government efforts to track or apprehend the illegal fishing boats.