Kerry Calls for 'Global Understanding,' U.N. Enforcement to Protect the Oceans

Secretary of State John Kerry expressed support Tuesday for “a global structure” within the United Nations to enforce regulations on how the oceans are managed and protected. After addressing the World Ocean Summit in California by video link, Kerry was asked by an event moderator for his views on calls for “a world oceans organization of some sort at the United Nations.” “Of course we need a global framework of some kind by which people sign up and agree to cooperate,” Kerry replied. “But we not only need the rules, we need the regulatory enforcement process.” “I absolutely endorse the notion, as does President Obama, that we need some kind of global understanding about how we will enforce – and what – how we will enforce regulations and what rules we will put in place in order to preserve our fisheries and manage our coastlines and do the things necessary to reduce the pollution and preserve these ecosystems. It is going to take some kind of global understanding,” he said. “I know people resist and hate the idea,” Kerry continued. “They think: ‘Wait a minute. We have our commercial economic zone, our extended economic zone. Each country wants to exercise its own sovereignty.’ But that’s not the way the ocean works, and that’s not the way migratory species behave. Kerry was also asked about the ongoing effort to ratify the U.N. Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which due to Republican opposition has been awaiting Senate ratification since 1982. “I wanted very much to try to ratify the Law of the Sea when I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and I’d love to ratify it now,” he said. “But we’re having difficulty with this Senate in even being able to ratify a disabilities treaty that doesn’t require the United States to do anything, but helps other countries raise the standards for people with disabilities. So you can understand the difficulties of what we have in terms of the ratification process. “But we are committed to living by the Law of the Sea even though it isn’t ratified, and we will do everything in our power to live by the standards of the Law of the Sea.”…more

Great, the same government which can't manage 30% of the land area in the U.S. now thinks the United Nations will do a great job managing oceans which cover 72% of the earth's surface and contain 97% of the earth's water. "The ocean principally comprises Earth's hydrosphere and therefore is integral to all known life, forms part of the carbon cycle, and influences climate and weather patterns."  Turn that over to the U.N.?  I don't think so.

The expert on the Law of the Sea treaty is one Perry Pendley, author of  Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today.  In that excellent book you'll find a devasting critique of the LSOT plus an account of Pendley's internal battle in the Reagan administration to defeat it.