Following ten years of discussions, nations have secured a historic agreement to protect the world’s seas.
The High Seas Treaty designates 30% of the oceans as protected areas by 2030, to protect and restore marine life.
After 38 hours of negotiations, the deal was struck on Saturday evening at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The talks had been stalled for years due to conflicts over funding and fishing rights.
The last international accord on ocean conservation, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, was signed 40 years ago in 1982.
That agreement established the high seas – international waters in which all countries have the right to fish, ship, and conduct research – yet just 1.2% of these waters are protected.
Climate change, overfishing, and maritime traffic have all put marine species outside of these protected regions at risk.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s most recent estimate of worldwide marine species, approximately 10% are at risk of extinction (IUCN).
These new protected areas, established by the treaty, will limit the amount of fishing allowed, the routes of shipping channels, and exploratory activities such as deep sea mining, which involves extracting minerals from a sea bed 200m or deeper below the surface.
Environmentalists have expressed worry that mining operations could disrupt animal breeding habitats, cause noise pollution, and be hazardous to marine life.
The International Seabed Authority, which controls licensing, stated that “any future activity in the deep seabed will be subject to severe environmental laws and oversight to ensure that it is carried out sustainably and ethically” in the future.
Governments will need to gather again to formally accept the accord, and there will be much work to be done before the treaty can be implemented.
