High seas cover over half of our planet’s surface, and represent two-thirds of the entire ocean. They serve as a crucial habitat for countless marine species, many of which remain undiscovered. They also play a vital role in climate regulation. The high seas are also home to secret treasures that could potentially reshape medical science. Painkillers, antibiotics and many other drugs have been produced from genetic material found in the depths of the ocean.
Despite their immense ecological and medical importance, only 1% of these international waters are legally protected. Since they fall outside the jurisdiction of any country, high seas are not governed by anyone. This has led to patchy regulation and uncoordinated management, leaving them vulnerable to threats like overfishing, shipping traffic, and ocean acidification.
An international treaty aims to address these concerns. Last year, countries around the world agreed upon the Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Treaty) after decades of discussions and negotiations. The historic treaty aims to establish legal frameworks for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. The treaty has created a blueprint for countries that want to propose and create protected areas in the high seas. It tackles prior assessment of potentially damaging activities like deep sea mining while also trying to figure out a way to share and distribute marine resources in an equitable manner. Sixty countries will have to ratify the treaty before it goes into effect.
Watch this video to learn more about the high seas, the significance of the BBNJ treaty and the questions that remain unanswered
Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any inspiring people, urgent issues, or local stories that you’d like us to cover? We want to hear from you. Be a part of our reporting process—get in touch with us here!
Banner image: Bathyphysa and Chaunacops species. Image by Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
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This is Point Nemo.
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It’s bang
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
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and is one point on Earth
that’s farthest from land.
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The nearest shore is some 2600km away.
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It’s quite literally
the middle of nowhere.
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Parts of the ocean
like these are called the high seas.
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They cover half of the planet’s surface
and technically don’t belong to anyone.
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Well, maybe except Japan.
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Oh, and there’s good reason
for their fascination with the high seas.
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They are one of the last remaining
wilderness on Earth, and scientists
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believe that they’re a treasure
trove of undiscovered secrets.
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One that’s been threatened by.
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Illegal, unregulated fishing. Pollutants.
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Shipping. Unusually high.
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Water temperatures. And acidification.
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So how do we go about protecting this
pristine, precious part of the ocean?
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Let’s take a look.
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So first up, what are the high seas?
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They are part of the ocean that’s outside
the jurisdiction of any one country.
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They cover two thirds of the entire ocean,
and yet
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only 1% of the high
seas are legally protected.
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The remaining is a free
for all kind of situation with patchy
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regulations and uncoordinated management.
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But this wilderness is home
to a lot of marine life,
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many of which we might not even have
discovered yet.
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For many animals, the high seas
is also an important route for migration.
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Take the humpback whale, for instance.
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One of them traveled
19,000km over 265 days,
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and half
that time was spent in the high seas.
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And then it’s home to secret treasures
like microscopic.
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Organisms that have adapted to live
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in those environments.
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That’s William Senecal.
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For years, he has researched
marine microbes with one goal in mind.
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Discovering new medicines.
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Senecal research has led to two drugs,
both of which are in the last stages
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of development.
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Painkillers not prebiotics, have also been
made from material found from the ocean.
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We’ve barely scratched the surface.
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But despite how important it is
and knowing close to nothing about them,
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the world is lagged behind
when it comes to protecting the high seas.
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And so the bigwigs of the world
have put their heads
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together and come up with
a treaty that does just that.
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Now, we
all know that treaties are important,
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but they also happen
to be incredibly dense and super long.
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So I took one for the team.
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I read up on the BMJ treaty
and chatted with some experts,
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all in the name
of protecting the deep blue.
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If we do this well,
we can protect valuable marine life.
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We can help to stabilize the climate.
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That’s Rebecca Hubbard.
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She heads an advocacy organization
that has been part of the treaty talks
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since it began. Over 20 years ago.
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If finally March of 2023,
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the ship has reached the shore.
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Celebrations at the UN.
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200 countries have come to an agreement
to protect the world’s oceans, and.
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Only made.
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It over the finish line
after a marathon 36 hour
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negotiating session
that ended late last night.
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It is a big deal indeed.
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The treaty covers three major issues.
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It has set up a framework for countries
to propose and create marine
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protected areas in the high seas.
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On land,
we might have national parks or reserves
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on the high seas under the High Seas
Treaty.
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There’s really a clear process
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for how to identify an area
that should be protected.
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It’s not entirely clear
how they’ll go about with it,
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but harmful human activities
could either be regulated
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or completely banned in these protected
areas.
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The next big point in the treaty deals
with.
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Assessing the impacts of potentially
damaging activities in the high seas.
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Let’s take deep sea mining as an example.
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It hasn’t even started yet,
but it is already so controversial.
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So getting countries
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to assess the impact of these activities
is crucial.
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And finally, the treaty also says.
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That genetic resources that come from
the high seas are actually a common good.
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We should all have access to them.
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Here’s why that’s important.
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Getting all those genetic material
is a lot of work.
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You need research teams, infrastructure,
and of course, a lot of money.
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And not all countries
have the capability to do that.
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The data
and the information must be made public.
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And that really will give countries
and people
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an opportunity to potentially invest in
and develop research.
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Officials negotiating the treaty were
under a lot of pressure to finalize it.
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And so, of course, a lot of questions
remain
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like how will the resources
be shared equally?
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When will they reach countries
that can do independent research?
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And how will countries be held
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accountable over their assessment
of potentially damaging activities?
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Figuring all of that out is the next step.
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Meanwhile, the treaty has only been agreed
upon.
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Countries will need to sign the treaty
and then ratify it.
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And that means they’ll have to figure out
a way to combine
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the terms of the treaty
with their existing rules and laws.
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This country, one of the world’s
smallest, was the first to jump on board,
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and then these others followed suit.
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As of today, eight countries have ratified
the treaty.
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60 countries need to do this
for the treaty to go into effect.
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Experts are hoping that this will happen
by the UN
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Ocean Conference in France in June 2025.
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In the meantime,
what could you and I do about it?
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It’s really, really important for people
to communicate
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to their governments that this is
this is important.
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Governments need to prioritize it.
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And they always prioritize things.
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If people if their citizens
are telling them it’s a priority.
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