From the ancient times, ocean has been vital for humanity. The sea is a massive driver of the global economy and is also important to maintain planet’s overall health. Several countries across the Commonwealth also depend on the sea for growth. However, in the recent years, it is observed that weak governance is turning that opportunity into a liability.
The world’s oceans are being asked to do too much. Feeding the growing populations, absorbing carbon emissions, supporting global trade and delivering new sources of economic growth are some of the things in the to do list of the oceans. The Commonwealth that consists of 56 countries that together control vast stretches of the world’s seas and depend heavily on them for food, jobs and revenue. The strain on these surrounding seas are more visible in the Commonwealth than anywhere across the world.
This blue economy is not just a fashionable policy concept but an economic necessity for many Commonwealth members. For instance, small island states in the Caribbean and Pacific rely on fisheries and tourism. Then, Coastal African and South Asian countries depend on the sea for protein, employment and exports. Yet these same waters are increasingly depleted, poorly policed and vulnerable to exploitation.
What is at the centre of this problem? Contradiction lies at the centre of these issues. Governments promote ocean-based growth but these nations lack the capacity to protect the resources that make such growth possible. Thus, fish stocks are declining, illegal fleets operate with relative impunity and maritime governance remains fragmented. Hence we see an economy built on a resource that is quietly disappearing.
An ocean-heavy club
The exposure of the Commonwealth to ocean risk is structural. On the one hand it has members who own some of the world’s largest exclusive economic zones, often managed by countries with limited financial and institutional capacity. On the other hand there are small island developing states where maritime territory can be hundreds of times larger than land area, stretching enforcement capabilities to breaking point.
Millions of people across the Commonwealth find Fish to be their primary source of protein, particularly in South Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Fisheries also provide livelihoods for small-scale fishermen who lack other employment options. When fishing stocks decline, the economic and social consequences are immediate. It results in lost income, higher food prices and growing pressure to overfish what remains.
As much as these nations depend on the seas, investment in marine science, stock assessments and monitoring remains weak. Many countries are fishing blindly, unsure of how much can be sustainably harvested. In such conditions, depletion is not an accident but an inevitability.
The rise of illegal fishing
Moreover, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing which is known in policy circles as IUU fishing, has become the most visible mark of governance failure. Many foreign industrial fleets, often operate under flags of convenience and exploit poorly monitored waters, targeting high-value species and undercutting local fishers.
The toll it takes is significant. Governments lose revenue, coastal communities lose livelihoods and fish stocks are depleted faster than they can recover. Yet these nations find the enforcement of marine law to be expensive as it requires patrol vessels, satellite monitoring, trained personnel and functioning courts. Many Commonwealth states lack all of the above.
The imbalance is stark. While the industrial fishing fleets are highly capitalised and technologically advanced, the regulators rely on limited budgets and ageing equipment on the contrast. This results in regulatory arms race that poorer countries are losing.
Fragmented governance at sea
Maritime governance across the Commonwealth, looks patchy and uncoordinated with the responsibilities often shared between multiple agencies with overlapping mandates and weak information-sharing. Meanwhile, laws exist on paper but are inconsistently enforced. Corruption further undermines compliance, particularly where fishing licences and port access are concerned.
Regional cooperation, although frequently discussed, is limited. Fish stocks do not respect national boundaries, yet management regimes stop at them. Without shared data and coordinated enforcement between the nations, conservation efforts in one country can be easily undone by inaction in another.
This fragmentation of the governance that is seen is not just administrative, but it reflects the low political priority given to oceans, which are often seen as distant and abstract compared with land-based concerns. It is usually too late, by the time depletion becomes visible.
Growth versus sustainability
Commonwealth governments is facing an acute dilemma. On one hand, the blue economy promises growth with its offshore energy, aquaculture, seabed minerals and expanded fisheries. On the other, the ecological limits of the ocean are becoming harder to ignore.
Short-term economic pressures often win, as the governments facing debt distress and unemployment are reluctant to restrict fishing or deny licences. Therefore, sustainability becomes a long-term aspiration which is deferred in favour of immediate revenue.
Yet this trade-off is illusory, as overexploitation reduces future income and increases vulnerability to climate shocks. Warming seas, coral bleaching and changing fish migration patterns are already highlighting the failures of the management. The blue economy, badly managed, risks becoming another extractive model that enriches a few while impoverishing many.
What lies ahead
The fact is Commonwealth is well placed to lead on ocean governance, at least in theory. Shared legal traditions, common language and existing diplomatic networks offer a great foundation for cooperation. However, in practice, these advantages remain underused.
Without stronger enforcement, better data and genuine regional coordination, fisheries depletion and illegal fishing will intensify further, with food insecurity and social tension in coastal communities following. The sea which was long treated as a limitless resource, will rapidly become a source of economic and political risk.
Even though the blue economy is often presented as a solution, for much of the Commonwealth, it may instead prove a test—of governance, restraint and the willingness to invest in the long term. The ocean’s capacity to give is not infinite. How these countries respond will shape their prosperity for decades to come.
