(Credit: Silas Baisch – Unsplash)

The landmark United Nations High Seas Treaty quietly entered into force a few weeks ago, representing a significant step for international ocean conservation, and a much-needed reaffirmation that multilateralism is still capable of addressing complex global problems even in these fractured times.

The UN’s newest environmental accord comes not a moment too soon. Overfishing, climate change, acidification, and pollution are pushing the ocean to the brink. While important progress has been made safeguarding ocean areas closer to shore, until now the high seas and deep seabed (known as the “area beyond national jurisdiction” in legal parlance, typically 200 nautical miles out from the coast) enjoyed only a loose patchwork of weak and inconsistent regulations that failed to stop the alarming decline in ocean health and resilience witnessed worldwide.

These international waters cover roughly half of the planet’s surface and contain some of its largest reservoirs of biodiversity, much of which have yet to be explored. The more scientists study the relationship high seas marine life has with ecosystems in our own backyards, the more we grasp the interconnectedness of these ecosystems. We now know that global food staples like tuna are vulnerable to heavy fishing pressure as they pass through international waters. . At the same time, numerous species of endangered whales, sharks, and sea turtles use the open ocean as migratory corridors. Deeper beneath the surface, researchers are just beginning to understand the role deep sea corals, sponges, and microbial communities play in maintaining the ocean’s delicate ecological balance.

The tragedy befalling the marine environment has increasingly been brought to light through major advances in underwater exploration and documentation  as seen in the 2025 film, Ocean, David Attenborough’s latest masterpiece. Such public awareness helped pave the way for the agreement. It is not uncommon today to hear leaders speak fluently about the ocean’s critical role as a carbon sink or the staggering decline in fish species.

The treaty’s headline breakthrough is the establishment of a legal framework for designating fully protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on the high seas where damaging human activities are prohibited. Scientists are particularly interested in protecting biological hotspots critical to fish stocks and marine mammals; as well as oceanic wonders like the Lost City Hydrothermal Vent Field at the bottom of the Atlantic, the Emperor Seamount Chain in the middle of the Pacific, and the Lord Howe Rise and Tasman Sea off Australia.

Critically, the treaty also mandates the completion of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), which require assessment of potential impacts, along with monitoring and reporting,before commercial endeavors like geoengineering, energy installations, aquaculture, and bioprospecting that could cause significant impacts on ocean life are allowed to commence.

Equally as important, it brings fairness to a lopsided system that has long favored a handful of countries with the economic and technological wherewithal to exploit international waters of the deep ocean. The new EIA rules give a greater say to developing countries over proposed activities in the high seas that could affect their domestic waters, and the Treaty’s  technology transfer and capacity building requirements will permit lower-income nations to participate in scientific research and the burgeoning blue economy. Finally, if a multi-billion dollar medical breakthrough, for example, is derived from genetic material found in international waters, the treaty provides that profits be shared with the international community.

Over the past year, a Preparatory Committee has been meeting to hash out rules and procedures that will bring these important  provisions to life. The body has already convened twice and will meet one more time before the High Seas Treaty’s inaugural Conference of the Parties in New York this summer, but progress has been slow. We  need  on our ocean champions, who have worked so hard to bring the treaty into force, to ensure it lives up to the high ambitions they set for it.

It has taken almost two decades for what began as informal conversations about the need to protect the high seas among colleagues developed into protracted  negotiations and now international law. In the same period, climate change has worsened, biodiversity has fallen precipitously, and the ocean is at a tipping point. The Treaty represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revive our ocean. We owe it to present and future generations to put into place the mechanisms needed to turn the promise of the treaty into reality on the water. We have no time to lose.

 (Credit: NRDC) 

Lisa Speer is a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council who specializes in high seas regulation.

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