There are great expanses of oceans not owned or controlled by any nation, they are literally the open sea, free for anyone to fish in or sail across. It is an oddity in a world where even Antarctica has degrees of ownership.

I’m not going to bother with numbers, but the oceans are massively populated by beings who are not us. They are mostly undisturbed and barely notice our traverses. But our fishing and pollution cause immense harm and those species have no way of stopping us. Well, until now.

Introducing the newest nation on Earth, simply called Oceans. Its citizens are the birds, mammals, fish, molluscs, plants and anything else that is alive. Because they cannot speak for themselves (yet), we will nominate humans to speak for them – one reverse diplomat from every country.

A reverse diplomat advocates for the country they are allocated to, not the country they represent, but obviously there will be some allegiances.

In case of apathy, doing nothing to fix any oceanic issue is not an option, the only decision is how much do we help.

The good news is that container shipping is bad for the environment, so they can be taxed according to emissions x miles. Initially the numbers involved won’t matter much at all to each ship, but will add up to worthy amounts.

Fishing is much harder to police and tax, but there will be ways, including good nations voluntarily paying up.

As a nation, Oceans will have its own seat in the UN, it will have finances and a rudimentary navy, possibly using volunteers, or training exercises.

As a nation, Oceans will provide research grants. That would include great efforts to communicate with dolphins and whales.

Being an absurd idea, there will be pushback, and many poorer countries will decide not to recognise it as a state. Which means they do not get a reverse diplomat.

I would like to see a UN Ocean council, like the UN Security Council, with Oceans as a permanent member. It could resolve differences regarding, for example, who gets to have trade routes through the Arctic ocean. Something like this already exists, but it is more akin to COP

With time I would want the ocean perimeters of countries to be reduced, and seceded to Oceans. That would involve grandfathering in things like fishing rights.