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Oceans are on the brink of collapse, according to a new report by the Global Ocean Commission. 

According to the report, apart from overfishing, oceans are also suffering from increased pollution. 

The expert commission advised government to set a five-year deadline to crack down on over-fishing and pollution. 

"The oceans are a failed state," David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary and a co-chair of the Global Ocean Commission, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "A previously virgin area has been turned into a plundered part of the planet."

The report added that many fish stocks in the high seas were under pressure from illegal and unregulated catches. 

About 10 million tonnes of fish worth $16 billion, from tuna to molluscs, are caught every year in the high seas out of a global fish catch of 80 million tonnes, the commission said, according to Reuters. 

"The ocean provides 50 percent of our oxygen and fixes 25 percent of global carbon emissions. Our food chain begins in that 70 percent of the planet," said Jose Maria Figueres, former Costa Rican President who is co-chair of the Commission.

"A healthy ocean is key to our well-being," he said in a statement. 

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, the United States, Chile, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and France are the main high seas fishing nations.